Johanna- Bitter Tears
by Lillia Rose3758
Summary: My attempt at Johanna. First try at this stuff so bring it on, am typing straight into the website so please excuse any formatting spelling errors this should change soon. I'll try to cover her games and her family's death. And why "she has a talent for murder" which i thought was an odd phrasing in the books, as Victors are usually referred to as killers not murderers.
1. Chapter 1

Johanna sat in her room, today was reaping day at 17 she had 35 slips in that hated glass bowl. She had a large family and it was hard being the only child who was eligible for tesserae. Her sister slept in the same bed snoring softly, lucky little thing at 11 years old, thing no worries for her today, Johanna got out of the bed doing her best not to wake her she could sleep a little longer. Her parents were in the kitchen she could hear them whispering

"we should give her more today, I don't have to work and she might get reaped" her father muttered in hushed tones. "She'll be fine 12 isn't that many, the Wellston boy has in 50 but I'll slip a little extra just in case. Touch wood." her mother now she used the old phrase of luck. Johanna got up before her mother could come in and shyly wake her, her wonderful mother who worked in the woods scraping together a living, often going without meals so that her children could eat, always a kind word and a little nudge in the right direction. She often felt guilty at the amount that she had entered her name. Both her parents worked in the cutter crews often travelling into the woods for a few weeks at a time. The day she turned 11 she joined them, giving her mother a chance to stay at home with her siblings, scaling tall trees to trim the top most branches for easier felling. She knew lots of kids fell to their deaths even before being reaped, she had taken on the work even knowing the dangers, her mother worked a town job now in the sawmill. At 17 that hard work had given her long lean muscles that made her look skinnier than her district counter parts. She was whip smart despite the fact the school only taught students until they were old enough to join the crews.

She climbed out of bed and put on her reaping dress there had been a lean year when she was 14 and as such she hadn't really grown much. The lean year had been caused by a long winter, when there was no wood the district didn't get as much food, most of her family had nearly starved. Her mother was always saying that the lack of food had stunted her growth staying at the 5'3 mark, so she was able to where the same pink and white dress every year. Her long black hair fell in long waves which her mother would brush lovingly leaving it loose and shining.  
"Joey are we getting up?" Camellia mumbled.  
"Yes I have to get pretty for the reaping, wouldn't do to look a mess" she sneered at her sibling. Dressing up for the reaping seemed so unimportant.  
"but they always look so bloody in the end joey, for my reaping dress I'm going to wear red and black" Johanna sighed there was no explaining to her sister that it wasn't her choice to look pretty but Snow's, good name for an ice-cold murderer. You'll end up wearing the same dress I am until you grow out of it. Luckily with three working adults in the house, she was hoping that Cam wouldn't have to enter her name more than necessary.  
"Cam if I could I would, I'd look far better in black anyway. Come mum has cooked breakfast let's eat before the terrible two get it" They giggled thinking of the two twins who were 5 but often managed to out eat their father. The girls slipped out of the tiny room they shared behind the kitchen, it was a pantry but needs meant it was now used by the girls as a bedroom. Food had to be stored in her parents' bedroom where the twins slept. They had a small kitchen the held the old television, it crackled to life showing old Hunger Games footage, Johanna always wondered if they called it that because they starved the tributes so often. It was showing Finnick Odair, he had to be 19 now touting the success of the 70th games, but lamenting that the victor was nowhere near as handsome as him, typical chauvinistic blond prick she thought, he gets on every year and says something about how no-one matches his god-like beauty and how horrible it is for him. His speech is followed by a few "candid" shots of him with different woman hanging off him. Next was one of the careers callously starting into the camera glowering about how easy the tributes had it, and how her games had been far more brutal, Johanna couldn't think of her name until the favourite shoot of her baring her fangs at the screen. Enobaria, luckily the twins were still noisily getting dressed when the shot of her ripping out some poor boys throat is shown on screen. Johanna was just old enough to remember those games, and the creepy lisping speech she gave after, trying to talk around her fangs that occupied her top jaw now. At least practice had made her better at talking. Just at the next victor appeared on the screen a tree rat scuttled out from behind the counter, Johanna threw her knife pinning the thing to the wall, Camellia's followed a few seconds later "Not fair you're faster" the 11 year old whined, "It's because I'm older" she smiled "Mum there's meat for breakfast" she shouted in the general direction of the bedroom, walking over and pulling the two knives out of the wall. It was a good sized rat, about the size of the fox terrier that their escort carried with him everywhere. Her dad took the rat from her hands taking it outside to skin and gut. Her mum sat the twins at the table, Cedar and Birch diving into the mushy grains that had been put in front of them.

The rat was fried in a skillet for the rest of breakfast, fat from the good summer eating, and probably some of the tesserae she paid so dearly for every few months. Eating the little thief served him right as far as the family was concerned. Part of the reason they were so good with the knives was because it was the only way to get meat. Her father had started to teach her when she was to twins age, and starvation had made her good, really good. She dear not show her skill anywhere that someone could see. The peacekeepers might see it as training against them and she had already had one family member whipped till he died at the post in the middle of town. Her cousin displaying the same skill she had shown earlier. Johanna waited for her family to finish their portions of food, despite what her parents had whispered this morning she wouldn't take any food from their mouths. "Eat Joey, here have some more" her mother coaxed. "Don't mum I feel sick already, give it to Cam or the boys." her mother sighed after 5 years she should know the routine by now, I don't eat she coaxes, I still don't eat. For the first time her mother did not try again she just sat and waited with her. Food eventually finished they headed for the square, dishes would wait until the reaping was over. It was the same every year they walked to the town square around 10 am, and mill around catching up with friends, family used to come to but there weren't any now. After her cousin had died his mother slit her own throat, the peacekeepers used it as an excuse to hang her dad's brother for murder. They knew that Elm had to learn that skill somewhere and by killing his parents the evil drones thought they had weeded them out. Johanna hated it, it just reminded her of her cousin, and the girls section looked right at the post where he had died. Every year since she was 13 she stared at that stupid post and watch her mirror image scream himself to death, and every year in made her look weak because she cried. Elm could have been her twin they were born just a few months apart, and he matched her in every way. Curling black hair, dark green eyes, skinny limbs, red lips that had been full of blood due to him biting his tongue from pain. Around 3 pm the head peacekeeper started shouting for them to file into the pens. Like pigs to a slaughter, they line us up to die and every year I get closer to the post she thought, she always stood at the back of her age group hoping that she wouldn't have to see it.

The escort walked onto the stage, his stupid dog in a bag under his arm, Palatine Gordon smiled, he dyed himself blue but changed the colour of his suit every year. This year he wore an awful shade of orange that clashed with his skin and hair horribly. The mayor some fat old man gave the usual speech about previous games and then introduced the previous victors, for such a poor district they had a few, Johanna always assumed it was because of the extra rations they received so they could continue cutting the trees. This year 3 of the five sat in stage, Seed Swint the old woman who won nearly 50 years ago. Bark Trou he won by burning down the arena, Barking Mad they called him now, he spent most of his time locked in his house, and Camellia Trou his sister she won the year Cam was born, she spent most of her time trying to keep Barking from burning things down. As the major concludes his speech Blight pushes onto the stage and sits down. The final victor won't make it he's been dying for several months now of a wasting disease. Palatine walks up to the stage and begins the history of Panem spiel that he goes through every year it follows along with a film in the background, Johanna tunes it out, it's the same guilt about the rebellion every year. Just as the film finishes the crowd shifts Johanna get a full view of the whipping post, and the tears begin, by the time Palatine giggles in his effeminate voice "ladies first" tears a running rivers down her face, she can see Elm screaming his death. "Johanna Mason" the girlish chime comes, she freezes.

The crowd turns to her, but she can't move, eventually peacekeepers come and lead her to the stage. Tears still pouring from her eyes, her nose running, Johanna thinks about how weak she looks walking to her death. Fine she decides as she ascends the Justice building stairs let's play this to my favour let them think I'm weak. She slumps to the ground on her side of the stage, kneeling she lets the grief of her cousin overcome her, her body begins to shake as she sobs in to her hands. Palatine stares at her with pity, Johanna smiles into her hands, its working. Palatine pulls another slip from the other glass bowl "Alder Pavi" his voice breathy as the boy walks to the stage. He is strong, muscular, 6'2 dark blond-haired, his face a mask on anger. Johanna smiles again, she knows him, he's in her work crew and he will make her look even weaker with his brash bravado. She catches herself before the cameras pan back to her, and resumes her weeping but not before she sees Blight's quizzical look. "I present to you your tributes, Johanna Mason and Alder Pavi, May the odds be ever in your favour that girlish twitter is going to get old quick Johanna thinks to herself, as they usher her into the Justice building to await her good-byes. She looks at the single story building it looked like a wood cabin, and was the largest building in town. The train station backed onto it, and most of the distribution was calculated in here. They town had recently packed and moved, following the trees, so there had been little time for the usual ivy growth that covered the other district buildings.

Johanna sat in her room, today was reaping day at 17 she had 35 slips in that hated glass bowl. She had a large family and it was hard being the only child who was eligible for tesserae. Her sister slept in the same bed snoring softly, lucky little thing at 11 years old, thing no worries for her today, Johanna got out of the bed doing her best not to wake her she could sleep a little longer. Her parents were in the kitchen she could hear them whispering  
"we should give her more today, I don't have to work and she might get reaped" her father muttered in hushed tones. "She'll be fine 12 isn't that many, the Wellston boy has in 50 but I'll slip a little extra just in case. Touch wood." her mother now she used the old phrase of luck. Johanna got up before her mother could come in and shyly wake her, her wonderful mother who worked in the woods scraping together a living, often going without meals so that her children could eat, always a kind word and a little nudge in the right direction. She often felt guilty at the amount that she had entered her name. Both her parents worked in the cutter crews often travelling into the woods for a few weeks at a time. The day she turned 11 she joined them, giving her mother a chance to stay at home with her siblings, scaling tall trees to trim the top most branches for easier felling. She knew lots of kids fell to their deaths even before being reaped, she had taken on the work even knowing the dangers, her mother worked a town job now in the sawmill. At 17 that hard work had given her long lean muscles that made her look skinnier than her district counter parts. She was whip smart despite the fact the school only taught students until they were old enough to join the crews.

She climbed out of bed and put on her reaping dress there had been a lean year when she was 14 and as such she hadn't really grown much. The lean year had been caused by a long winter, when there was no wood the district didn't get as much food, most of her family had nearly starved. Her mother was always saying that the lack of food had stunted her growth staying at the 5'3 mark, so she was able to where the same pink and white dress every year. Her long black hair fell in long waves which her mother would brush lovingly leaving it loose and shining.  
"Joey are we getting up?" Camellia mumbled.  
"Yes I have to get pretty for the reaping, wouldn't do to look a mess" she sneered at her sibling. Dressing up for the reaping seemed so unimportant.  
"but they always look so bloody in the end joey, for my reaping dress I'm going to wear red and black" Johanna sighed there was no explaining to her sister that it wasn't her choice to look pretty but Snow's, good name for an ice-cold murderer. You'll end up wearing the same dress I am until you grow out of it. Luckily with three working adults in the house, she was hoping that Cam wouldn't have to enter her name more than necessary.  
"Cam if I could I would, I'd look far better in black anyway. Come mum has cooked breakfast let's eat before the terrible two get it" They giggled thinking of the two twins who were 5 but often managed to out eat their father. The girls slipped out of the tiny room they shared behind the kitchen, it was a pantry but needs meant it was now used by the girls as a bedroom. Food had to be stored in her parents' bedroom where the twins slept. They had a small kitchen the held the old television, it crackled to life showing old Hunger Games footage, Johanna always wondered if they called it that because they starved the tributes so often. It was showing Finnick Odair, he had to be 19 now touting the success of the 70th games, but lamenting that the victor was nowhere near as handsome as him, typical chauvinistic blond prick she thought, he gets on every year and says something about how no-one matches his god-like beauty and how horrible it is for him. His speech is followed by a few "candid" shots of him with different woman hanging off him. Next was one of the careers callously starting into the camera glowering about how easy the tributes had it, and how her games had been far more brutal, Johanna couldn't think of her name until the favourite shoot of her baring her fangs at the screen. Enobaria, luckily the twins were still noisily getting dressed when the shot of her ripping out some poor boys throat is shown on screen. Johanna was just old enough to remember those games, and the creepy lisping speech she gave after, trying to talk around her fangs that occupied her top jaw now. At least practice had made her better at talking. Just at the next victor appeared on the screen a tree rat scuttled out from behind the counter, Johanna threw her knife pinning the thing to the wall, Camellia's followed a few seconds later "Not fair you're faster" the 11 year old whined, "It's because I'm older" she smiled "Mum there's meat for breakfast" she shouted in the general direction of the bedroom, walking over and pulling the two knives out of the wall. It was a good sized rat, about the size of the fox terrier that their escort carried with him everywhere. Her dad took the rat from her hands taking it outside to skin and gut. Her mum sat the twins at the table, Cedar and Birch diving into the mushy grains that had been put in front of them.

The rat was fried in a skillet for the rest of breakfast, fat from the good summer eating, and probably some of the tesserae she paid so dearly for every few months. Eating the little thief served him right as far as the family was concerned. Part of the reason they were so good with the knives was because it was the only way to get meat. Her father had started to teach her when she was to twins age, and starvation had made her good, really good. She dear not show her skill anywhere that someone could see. The peacekeepers might see it as training against them and she had already had one family member whipped till he died at the post in the middle of town. Her cousin displaying the same skill she had shown earlier. Johanna waited for her family to finish their portions of food, despite what her parents had whispered this morning she wouldn't take any food from their mouths. "Eat Joey, here have some more" her mother coaxed. "Don't mum I feel sick already, give it to Cam or the boys." her mother sighed after 5 years she should know the routine by now, I don't eat she coaxes, I still don't eat. For the first time her mother did not try again she just sat and waited with her. Food eventually finished they headed for the square, dishes would wait until the reaping was over. It was the same every year they walked to the town square around 10 am, and mill around catching up with friends, family used to come to but there weren't any now. After her cousin had died his mother slit her own throat, the peacekeepers used it as an excuse to hang her dad's brother for murder. They knew that Elm had to learn that skill somewhere and by killing his parents the evil drones thought they had weeded them out. Johanna hated it, it just reminded her of her cousin, and the girls section looked right at the post where he had died. Every year since she was 13 she stared at that stupid post and watch her mirror image scream himself to death, and every year in made her look weak because she cried. Elm could have been her twin they were born just a few months apart, and he matched her in every way. Curling black hair, dark green eyes, skinny limbs, red lips that had been full of blood due to him biting his tongue from pain. Around 3 pm the head peacekeeper started shouting for them to file into the pens. Like pigs to a slaughter, they line us up to die and every year I get closer to the post she thought, she always stood at the back of her age group hoping that she wouldn't have to see it.

The escort walked onto the stage, his stupid dog in a bag under his arm, Palatine Gordon smiled, he dyed himself blue but changed the colour of his suit every year. This year he wore an awful shade of orange that clashed with his skin and hair horribly. The mayor some fat old man gave the usual speech about previous games and then introduced the previous victors, for such a poor district they had a few, Johanna always assumed it was because of the extra rations they received so they could continue cutting the trees. This year 3 of the five sat in stage, Seed Swint the old woman who won nearly 50 years ago. Bark Trou he won by burning down the arena, Barking Mad they called him now, he spent most of his time locked in his house, and Camellia Trou his sister she won the year Cam was born, she spent most of her time trying to keep Barking from burning things down. As the major concludes his speech Blight pushes onto the stage and sits down. The final victor won't make it he's been dying for several months now of a wasting disease. Palatine walks up to the stage and begins the history of Panem spiel that he goes through every year it follows along with a film in the background, Johanna tunes it out, it's the same guilt about the rebellion every year. Just as the film finishes the crowd shifts Johanna get a full view of the whipping post, and the tears begin, by the time Palatine giggles in his effeminate voice "ladies first" tears a running rivers down her face, she can see Elm screaming his death. "Johanna Mason" the girlish chime comes, she freezes.

The crowd turns to her, but she can't move, eventually peacekeepers come and lead her to the stage. Tears still pouring from her eyes, her nose running, Johanna thinks about how weak she looks walking to her death. Fine she decides as she ascends the Justice building stairs let's play this to my favour let them think I'm weak. She slumps to the ground on her side of the stage, kneeling she lets the grief of her cousin overcome her, her body begins to shake as she sobs in to her hands. Palatine stares at her with pity, Johanna smiles into her hands, its working. Palatine pulls another slip from the other glass bowl "Alder Pavi" his voice breathy as the boy walks to the stage. He is strong, muscular, 6'2 dark blond-haired, his face a mask on anger. Johanna smiles again, she knows him, he's in her work crew and he will make her look even weaker with his brash bravado. She catches herself before the cameras pan back to her, and resumes her weeping but not before she sees Blight's quizzical look. "I present to you your tributes, Johanna Mason and Alder Pavi, May the odds be ever in your favour that girlish twitter is going to get old quick Johanna thinks to herself, as they usher her into the Justice building to await her good-byes. She looks at the single story building it looked like a wood cabin, and was the largest building in town. The train station backed onto it, and most of the distribution was calculated in here. They town had recently packed and moved, following the trees, so there had been little time for the usual ivy growth that covered the other district buildings.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Had to make a small change just realised that later on i refer to the earlier games as cold ones. Not Annie's and i need her as a plot device later. Will do a full edit in the next few days. **

Johanna sat in a small room in the Justice Building, wood being district 7 main export, this room had a log cabin feel. The roughhewn walls and creaking chairs were comforting in the strange way that made Johanna think of home and the wood all at once. While waiting for her family to arrive she thought about her accidental plan, she knew that her reaping would be memorable for all the wrong reasons. She was the weeping girl, a giant target was painted on her chest, and she was now easy pickings. Prey. She smiled to herself Prey, easily under estimated, the rabbit was never considered dangerous by the fox. She heard the door creak on its hinges, she wiped the grin from her face and resumed the teary eyed look and looked back at her hands.

"Johanna baby I am so sorry. This is a nightmare" her father bundled her into a hug, lifting her chin to look at into his face. "Oh my baby" over his shoulder Johanna watched the peacekeeper shut the door. She immediately cracked a smile. "Don't worry dad, I'm going to win." Her father looked stunned his howling daughter was transformed, she looked like a predator, her eyes glinting in the light from the window. Her mother looked and laughed "so that's the plan, where did it come from?"

"I was looking at the post where Elm died, and it makes me remember every year. When that twit called my name I was seeing him cry out. I didn't even realise it was me until the peacekeepers collected me. I was frozen in that memory. I had to think on the way up there, by the time I got to the stage I thought I may as well use it to my advantage, they stole his life, I am going to steal their games" she grinned at her mother. Mrs Mason reached around her neck and took off a locket, "Honey it has our images in it. My mother gave it to me and I'm passing it on. Use it to remember to come home, no matter what." She hugged her daughter as she wrapped the locket around her neck. "I love you Joey." Her dad looked at her in shock

"Don't grieve me yet dad, I have a plan I'm coming home." He just smiled. Johanna thought about all the family that this horrible nation had stolen from her father no wonder he thought she wasn't coming home "but I need you to play along. When they interview you talk about how scared I am. How worried you are for me. I love you both. And the terrible two's and Cam. Where are they?" noticing for the first time that her siblings hadn't entered the room with her parents.

"You were so upset, I thought that bringing the kids in would just terrify them. I, we, thought that you were actually scared Jo, that you believed you walked to your death. They are waiting outside with Alder's mother. You fooled even me Joey." Her father looked at her, his eyes still held pity but she did not have time to convince him now, she would just have to prove-it by surviving. She could see her mother knew, just understood, that her daughter could do it. They sat and quietly talked about her brothers, Elm, Camellia, and home until time was nearly up. As the door creaked once more Johanna let out a scream "Mommy don't leave me I don't want to die" as the peacekeepers shuffled her parents out, Mrs Mason hung her head and walked away looking defeated, Mr Mason looked like his heart was breaking. I'm sorry dad, she thought to herself, it has to be this way. I need to look weak. She continued to scream until the door creaked shut once more, her throat was beginning to ache, so stifled whimpers would have to work at the train station. She climbed back into one of the larger wooden chairs in the room, and settled down for a nap. She wouldn't receive any more visitors, no friends would come she knew, and her family had already been.

Alder must have had more than a few visitors, because it was starting to darken when she was finally woken from a nap by Palatine and another pair of the white suited men. They lifted her from the chair and she sagged against the tall man on her left and dragged her feet. The train station backed onto the Justice building, wood was packed onto train cars several times a day and shipped the capitol. As a necessity the building backed onto the train yard, less likely for accounting errors when you could count from the windows. Alder was already on the platform, staring at her. Palatine twittered to the little dog still under his arm, as the peacekeepers dumped her next to Alder. The three stood still for more photo's before boarding the train. Camellia and Blight sat the long table, drinking while Palatine began to talk to them again.

"Tributes, shall we lead to the rooms. You each get your own, it's so special." He giggled leading the two down the carriage "girls are in these rooms" he pointed Johanna to a room and gave her a shove. "Alder you're down here" he led the boy away by holding his wrist showing him a room two doors away Palatine smiled at the two "Get freshened up, and come meet us at the table food will be arriving shortly. We can watch the other reaping's while you eat, hopefully the games will be interesting is year, it was frightfully boring watching them freeze to death in the cold. The games are far more interesting when there is some actual bloodshed. You remind me of the boy who won, couldn't handle the world, all morphed up now." He stared at as Johanna slipped into her room without saying a word. Good let them think she was broken. She didn't bother to shower, or change but just sat on the bed until she hear Alder's footstep in the hall. She slipped out behind him and followed him down the carriage, he didn't even notice her quiet presence. In the room ahead she could her Blight and Camellia talking "You left Barking with Seed, the poor boy. She'll kill him in frustration"

"It's not like he wouldn't disserve it he set the bed on fire this morning before the reaping. I found in his room laughing and staring into the flames." Camellia sighed

"Well at least he wasn't chanting again, I could hear him last week dancing round that tree. How he got just that pine to burn I'll never know."

"He's had enough years practise, before the games he used to light fires, but it just got worse after he won."

Johanna remembered the year Camellia was reaped, Bark set the Justice building on fire during her visiting hours. He was dragged away before he could say goodbye, there were still scorch marks on the train station platform where the fire had begun. He spent a few days in the stocks, before letting him go, he had screamed the whole time about how he should be there to mentor her. She'd laughed at Bark then, about how odd he had seemed, I guess I'll understand him better soon, I wonder if they'll call me mad to. She slipped into a seat at the table and waited for someone to notice her, Alder jumped when he reached for the juice in front of her

"Where the hell did you come from?"

"I followed you in" she said in her meekest voice, soft and quiet she tried to copy what her brothers had sounded like when they were caught doing something naughty.

"Weirdo" he muttered diving back into the spread on the table.

Camellia began "you two have any talents? Alder?"

"I'm big, strong, can swing an axe pretty well. Know my way around the forest."

"And a plan Alder?" blight added, he looked at the boy, waiting for something Johanna wasn't sure.

"Join the careers, stick with them, then kill them off and win." He smiled triumphantly. Yeah because that has tried and failed in every games in the last fifty years Johanna thought to herself, he's an idiot.

"Crying Girl. You skills, talents, plans" Blight stared at her, he had seen her smile on stage she knew if anyone wouldn't fall for the poor girl act it would be him.

"I don't want Alder to know, he's my biggest threat" her best meek voice, let's build the big idiots confidence she thought. The two mentor let the slightest smiles twitch up the corners of their mouths, it would have been funny how in unison they were, if it wasn't because they had just picked the killer in the room. Johanna smiled two on her side, she'd need it if her plan followed through. She was going to look so useless in the next few days, she would need her mentors support in the arena. Alder didn't miss the smile either "Even they think your dead Johanna" he sneered "I have this in the bag." They continued to eat, Johanna just picked at a few things hoping to look to scared to truly eat a meal. Palatine feed his little dog. She could see now that it was fat, over-feed and she could why as the blue-skinned idiot feed the dog non-stop. The whole time he whispered sweet things to the dog

"Whose daddy's pretty boy?" "Has pretty boy had enough" "Foxy should eat more, you look skinny my baby" ah, she thought in disgust, that's the dog's name, it's never been without a meal in his life, Palatine disgusted her. He had no idea what skinny was, she thought of the little boy down the street who had died of starvation last winter. When they had found him his stomach stuck out, and his breath smelt sweet, like berry juice that had been left to long in the dark, she remembered because it seemed so out of place. They had tried to feed him, but his body had given up, he died that night. Her mother said because he had no food for so long, his body had turned off the parts that digested food, when they feed him they shocked his system, and he died. Johanna had thought it was better that way, at least he died with a full stomach. They looked all winter for the rest of his family, they finally found them on the other side of town, two more starved kids and the father dead. They had never found his mother but Johanna remembered his name, Benedict Green, such a stupid name, and thought that he had disserved better in life. Palatine continued to feed the dog, so she left the table she couldn't sit there and watch him feed that animal while children like Benedict starved at home.

Blight tapped on the door "Come on you have to watch the reaping's, it's one of the rules."

"Do we have five minutes? I'd like you to know my strategy."

"No now." Blight pointed at his ears and then the room. Ah they listen she nodded, they left and she sulked onto one of the couches in front of a large television screen. Nuts sat on the table in front of her so she picked at them while they waited. They were coated in some sticky sweet concoction, and tasted like the smell of roses, it was nice. She thought it was strange that Camellia avoided them. She only saw a few tributes worth noticing, the 12 pair could barely stand they obviously were starved, 11 10 and 9 didn't make an impression either. District 8 had its first volunteer, a 12 year old girl was replaced by an older girl, maybe her sister or cousin they shared the same last name. The boy had an evil look he smiled all the way to the podium, she was going to have to watch him. Her district was next, she let her eyes water at the embarrassment of her reaping, and Alder strutted on stage with confidence. The girl in 6 was 12 the boy 13, Palatine sighed "they will die so soon, I hate it when the games are short" Johanna looked at him with disgust, he wasn't upset because they were young but because they would die too soon. The boy in 5 was 18 he stared at the camera before walking up on stage to join a tiny little girl, she would have to watch these two as well. District 4 was the first career district two volunteers the girl Coral volunteered for a little blonde girl. Coral's red hair shined in the light, she smiled and waved at the crowd who cheered her up to the podium. The boy Kai was a muscled monstrosity, he waved at Finnick who lazed on the stage, the victor nodded in his direction. District 3 appeared next, the town always looked like it was covered in grim this year the recruits were a small girl who looked like she may not have eaten in months, the boy she would have to watch out for, he twisted a wire between his fingers as he stood on the podium. He gave Johanna a worrisome feeling in the pit of her stomach, something was off about this particular boy. Finally the last two career districts appeared on the screen but for once there was no volunteer for the 14 year old girl who was reaped, how odd, as the camera panned over the crowd she could see the girls glaring at one of the girls in the crowd. That must have been the volunteer, she thought to herself, I wonder why she didn't come forward.

"That's odd I've never seen one not volunteer." Camellia said "It'll make it easier in the arena for you two." she continued to watch the screen District 1 appeared, the building shinning bright white in the background. Of all the districts 1 always looked the cleanest on television, it shinned in the light. Their escort a pink woman with dead straight hair pulled a name from the glass bowl "Shannon Glick" a young woman with white hair walked down the row between the pens, young slim tall, this was her competition, Shimmer. The boy's name was obviously drawn from the second bowl "Gleam Antae" the pink woman read, an 18 year old walked towards the building having his back slapped, and receiving high fives along the way. Johanna wondered if he thought he was lucky because his name had been drawn. That was it, she had her competition, nothing much to worry about the 5 careers, that boy with the evil look from 8 and Alder.

Alder might be an idiot but he knew how strong she really was, and she had a sinking suspicion that he had seen her throw a knife once or twice. They went back to the table while the film played in the background, she thought about her family as they sat waiting for food to arrive. Her mother would be reassuring her dad, cam and her brothers. The boys probably didn't even understand why she wasn't at dinner, no-one in their circle had ever been reaped. It made her thankful, they wouldn't be afraid. Cam on the other hand would be terrified, she was old enough to know that their last victor was Camellia who was reaped nearly 10 years ago, and that for all Palatine's talk the odds were never in the lower districts favour. She thought of Elm to and his smiling face he was her only friend for a very long time, she wondered what he would have said in his visiting hour. He probably would have called her a wimp for crying, and laughed at her. Then they would have collaborated to have the best scheme for winning. Most of all he would have understood, just like she hoped Blight and Camellia would. Camellia drooped into the chair next to her

"Johanna it's customary to have wine with your meal, better get used to it now. They drink it like water" she sloshed something into a tall stemmed glass, it was clear.

"Ok. Thank you" she sipped it, but put it back on the table, it tasted like what Benedict smelt like.

"What are you thinking about?" Camellia tried to look reassuring, but she just looked sad. She thinks I'm going to die.

"My sister, she was born the day of your Victory, my parents named her Camellia. And my brothers Cedar and Birch they're 5, and Mum and Dad."

"Are you worried about them?"

"Not my mum, she gets it, she won't be worried about me. Dad on the other hand, he thinks he's sent me to my death"

"Thinks Johanna" Alder butted in mouth full of food "Those 12 year old have a better chance of surviving than you." He cackled at his own joke

"probably, but I don't like the idea of my family hurting because of me" both Blight and Camellia cringed at her words, she couldn't help but wonder what she had said Alder was the one being vile, he almost sounded like he couldn't wait for her death.

"Of course dear, no-one likes the idea of someone suffering because of them" Palatine breathed at her, stroking that fat little dog. Johanna seethed on the inside, that blue idiot and all his friends were exactly the reason she was dying, why Alder would have to die. For his entertainment. Except during the Hunger Games the more suffering the better.

The rest of the table began to eat, picked up something on the table that looked like an apple and took a bite, shocked she spat it out on her plate staring at the brown insides of the red ball she held in her hand. She sniffed it, meat, these capitol idiots had shaped meat into fruit. She took a smaller bite, it was savoury with hints of salty plum and sweet apples, and it was delicious. She looked up to see Palatine staring at her he tapped his utensils against the table

"We use utensils here, in all of Panem will I ever get tributes with some manners, a little decorum just once. Alder sweetie use your knife the foods not going to run away" he smiled at Alder "and girl, a knife and fork not our hands, and we do not spit food on the table if we don't like it. We politely spit it into a napkin, they will clean it after we leave." He stared at her, he had picked his favourite and it wasn't her. They referred to the Avox waiting politely in the corner. Johanna finished her meat fruit, but the rocking of the train was beginning to get to her. Her stomach felt like it was doing flips, the fake apple was threatening to make a reappearance.

"I'm going to be sick" she groaned.

"Not in here" Palatine screeched "go behind the door, quickly now" he was up and hurrying her into a small room, it held a small toilet some towels and a sink nothing more. "Come back and join us when you're done" he smiled at her, calm now that she was away from the table. Throwing up didn't seem to help, as she returned to the table she still felt queasy, it was the slow motion of the train.

"I think I'm going to bed. I feel really sick" she stood from the table and headed to her room. She curled up in the bed, it was soft and warm but it wasn't a substitute for the smell of home. She lay there thinking of home, the smell of the pinewood, sounds of cam snoring softly, the twins muttering to each other in their sleep, her parent's soft whispers before bed. Those sounds were horrifically absent now the train was terribly silent. She drifted into a light sleep. Elm was standing in the meadow waiting for her, the meadow looked over the victor's village of her town, the flowers were in bloom and he was waving. She loved this dream it happened every night after the reaping. This year it was different instead of blooming flowers they began to die as she walked towards him. The closer she got she could see his face, instead of happy healthy Elm his hair hung limp around his face, there was blood running down his fingers and dripping onto the dead grass. Her eyes followed on of the drops it landed on ground and bloomed into a black twisted rose, the vine wrapped around Elm's leg, the thorns cutting into the fabric of his pants. This was all wrong he should be smiling in the light, laughing as they ran in the meadow, he should be alive she thought to herself. Just as he opened his mouth to scream there was knocking on the door to her room.

"Johanna we've stopped for fuel, I know the motion has been making you sick you want to get some fresh air?" Blight pointed to his ears and then outside.

"Sure I just want to grab some fruit to eat, I'm hoping I can keep this down" they walked to the dining table and she grabbed a paring knife and real apple of the table before headed out of the carriage past Camellia's room, Blight paused and knocked gently on the door, she slipped out to join them. There was a brief pause at the door outside while the explained that they were escorting Ms Mason outside to help with her motion sickness. She was checked the knife and fruit explained, and the walked to the back of the train.

"Blight, what's going on it doesn't take two to escort, and this one isn't going to run she's too scared." Camellia muttered once they reached the end of the train.

"I'm not scared, but I need everyone to believe I am. Alder's plan is so see through he'll probably be killed in the first hour, I need to be accepted by the career pack, as the weakling, they seem to pick one every year to carry stuff, make, general dogs body stuff." Camellia cracked a smile she turned to Blight

"We have one. How'd you know?"

"Ms Mason smiled into her hands at the reaping when Palatine felt sorry for her, it was quick, and she was the only upset tribute I've ever seen who was aware of the camera's. She's smart Mia, and I think she'll win it." Blight smiled at her, and then grinned at Camellia.

"So what can you do? I'm guessing it's good and Alder doesn't know seeing as you wouldn't talk about it in front of him." In response Johanna took the knife and pinned one of the squirrels dashing through the trees behind them, it was about 15m away not far at all.

"I'm better closer but I can hit things pretty far away as well. I'm just as strong as anyone else on the work crews and I can climb a tree pretty fast as well. I'm pretty good at making nests up there to. I'm quiet, you watched me sneak in behind Alder earlier" she took a deep breath she hadn't meant for it to come out in a rush like that. Shit she sounded like a scared little girl. "Sorry, I didn't mean to rush" she muttered. The look on the two mentor's faces was a mixture of shock and excitement, they didn't even register her apology.

"This might work. Keep up the Crying Girl face, I'm going to give you a few hints now because Blight is right, the listen to everything we say. Never show those skills, but hint at some hidden talents in the interviews. I'm going to ignore you, mentors don't waste their time on weaklings, Blight?"

"Sounds good. You ready for this, it will be a lonely few weeks?"

"Ready, let's head back." They walked back to the train, she slipped into her character of meek Johanna, by the time the peacekeeper questioned her about the missing knife she was able to burst into tears and cry about how clumsy she had been dropping it in the grass. For once those tears didnt feel like her body way betraying her, this was going to work she though triumphantly.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N So i finally am able to type these in a word program so the writing style should get much better from her on out. As should formatting. Thanks to all who read**

She sat on her bed eating some fruit that she had ordered through the Avox girl, it had come piping hot, a beautiful chicken and rice dish with vegetables in a creamy red sauce. The train had stopped in district 2 for more fuel and she was finally able to eat again, Palatine knocked on her door  
"We will be stopping for a few days, some of the other trains were behind schedule, snow on the tracks, such a silly thing, and we cannot enter the city out of order. It would be unseemly." This gave her some relief, at least for a few days the rhythmic rocking of the train wouldn't send her running for the bathroom every time something passed through her lips.  
"Ok Palatine, is there anything else?" she had her meek Johanna voice back, every time she spoke to anyone that wasn't her mentors she was meek Johanna. "Well yes, you can exit the train but you must stay with the peacekeepers, and you cannot leave the train station, it would be right to have you wander around another district" No it wouldn't she thought to herself, I might see how well treated these people are compared to me. She knew from the television broadcast that district two was better off than her home district, but hers was not the worse. She thought she would take a wander, see if she could slip between some guards and snoop, let's see why these careers love the capitol so much more than she ever could, these weirdo's who choose to die in the games. She finished her meal with some fresh fruit, they often had nuts at a home, a by-product of the wood they grew, and she was really beginning to enjoy the succulent sweet soft flesh of the hard stoned fruits. Blight had explained that if the seed in the middle was encase in a nut it was called a stone, such an odd expression, but it really did feel like a stone, she nearly chipped a tooth on the first peach she bit into. Sipping a hot chocolate she headed for the door off the train, the hot drink warming her hands against the winter air. Blight caught up with her as she was leaving the train, he nodded to the peacekeeper who joined as they exited the train, they were going to have tail it seemed.  
"I'm Gallium, you have to stay within the confines of the square, you really be around another district at all, and that's a right reserved for victors only." He smiled condescendingly at her, Johanna the weakling was going to die, and should never get this chance. His face was a harsh one, he would have been in his late twenties, his skin had very few lines, and his lips were thin and pale. He reminded Johanna of a water rat the slimy way his brown hair hung from his head, he looked exactly like one as they crawled out of the creek. As her and Blight walked towards the square she could feel his eyes on her, he was a sleaze.  
"Johanna I'm going to find something to drink" he winked "stay with Gallium he'll keep you safe." Crap, she shuddered, I'm going to be left alone with this creep. The peacekeeper took a step closer, Blight had given him a way in, and this was not going to be a comfortable day at all.  
"It's ok, little girl I'll protect you. The capitol wouldn't want you damaged in any way before the big day now would it?" She said nothing, she knew from experience you didn't provoke the peacekeepers no matter how much you wanted to.

She wandered around the market, this town was far cleaner than her own, at home everything had a faint hint of sawdust, unlike home there was no dust anywhere and the stucco walls were bright white. The manufacturing part of this town was obviously very far away from the beautifully clean market. She wandered around the stalls looking at the precious gems, intricate pieces of jewellery, hand stitched clothing, and carved pieces of wood. Gallium kept a respectful distance, just far enough so that she wouldn't be approached by the other patrons, but close enough that she couldn't slip away into the crowd like she had hoped. Eventually she followed her nose to the food end of the market, with no money she wasn't planning to buy anything, just shop with her nose. She looked at the fruit in a stall all of it looked strange, not that she was an expert in fruit, but they had similar shapes to what she had been eating on the train, the oddity was the size and colour. The berries were the size of the stone-fruit and some of the fruits were that size of small nuts, the colours were astonishing, bright blues pale pinks fluorescent purples, every shade. Next to the odd fruit stall was the most delicious smelling stand, it was sweet and fried as her mouth watered Gallium strode forward "two, make it quick" he demanded, no pleasantries here either Johanna thought to herself, at least he is rude to everyone maybe it's not just me. She closed her eyes and let her nose fill her stomach, a trick her mother had taught her during her 14th year, if she imagined chewing and swallowing the smells then she could trick her stomach, at least for a few hours, into thinking it had eaten a small meal. She heard the rustle of his armour and could smell the pungent stink of his sweat, he was ruining her daydream could he not just leave her alone for a few minutes of peace.  
"Here. Eat it. they are good" he shoved a warm piece of bread into her hands, it was fried that much she could see and had a dusting of what looked like sugar and dirt, she shrug and took a bite. It was warm and sugary, with a sweet spice it tasted like what almost smelt like nasturtiums sweet and slightly peppery, it was good.  
"What's the dirt?" she asked, almost forgetting her timid voice  
"It's not dirt, its cinnamon, very rare, he only sells to officials. You won't find it anywhere else but the capitol." He had an air of pride, he was special. "You can pay me back for it later." A cold shiver ran down her spine, pay him back how she had no money, no possessions, and he was not the kind of guy who gave anything away for free. His eyes slid over her body, and Johanna didn't want the bread anymore, in fact she wasn't sure she ever wanted to eat again.  
"I'd like to go back to the train now" she said in barely a whisper, he smiled at her and then lead her back in the direction she had come.

As they walked back to the train she thought of Elm, he wasn't just her cousin he was her only friend, she wasn't really approachable in her home town and liked it that way. Friendly people had a habit of having accidents when they could no longer keep up the right friendships. Elm on the other hand was well liked for a while, they had a group of friend when he was alive, until a boy had made a pass at her. Johanna had broken his jaw, she did not like being touched and he insisted on grabbing her, Elm had come to her rescue, and probably would have smoothed things over if he hadn't been caught with the knife a few hours later. Johanna had always wondered if the boy had followed him, and then told the peacekeepers what was going on for a little bit of favour.

It had been a warm day, sunny and they were sitting in the glade behind that months' work site, whenever they found something like it in the forest they set up camp nearby and it would be that last area to be cut. It gave them reprieve from the heat and a quiet place to sit in the afternoons. This would be a stay away cut, meaning they would not be headed back to town every night, Johanna and Elm were the youngest in the crew, and would share the family tent while away. Most of the work had been done, and the peacekeepers had given them a day off work to enjoy the glade on last time before they cut down the pines around it. Elm had been encouraging her to get better with her knife throwing, he was always talking about how important it would be as a skill one day. He had been flicking his knife into a stump, they didn't see the head peacekeeper walk up behind them, and had been too busy laughing to notice the distinct tap-tap-tap that sounded their arrival. Elm had spotted a rabbit to his left and tossed his knife at it when the peacekeeper took a step towards their front. Elm's knife had just missed him, but that was offense enough, he mistook Elm's throw for him not the rabbit and he had been arrested on the spot. He was tied to a tree for the night they decided if they would finish the work or head back to town to punish him. That glade had never been cut as far as Johanna was aware, the decision was made to leave it. That nigh she had snuck up to Elm, he had a broken nose which was darkening his eyes, hit lip was split and his ear had been torn at some point, he smiled at her when she slipped into the tree above him.  
"They even ate the rabbit, bastards, I told them that's what I was aiming for, and they went back and got it. I watched them eat our dinner and didn't say a word, do you know what he said after Joey?"  
"Elm don't tell me. Please you'll be fine."  
"No. He said that dinner cost you your life. I'm going to die, I just hope they make it quick" Elm had paused then and tilted his head she could hear it to the tap-tap of approaching peacekeeper. She slipped higher into the tree as he approached  
"Seen your cousin boy? I have a few questions to ask her. Apparently she needs to learn her place." He grinned at Elm.  
"I don't know how you've had me tied to this tree all night, I'm guessing she's in our tent." Shut up Elm you'll only make it worse she had wanted to scream  
"Death made you brave, enjoy it while it lasts, it won't be long now. Do you want me to bring her by once we find her, maybe she can kiss her sweet cousin goodbye" he chuckled to himself as he walked back towards the tents. Johanna slipped back down the branches, she could feel them tugging at her clothes as she leaned in.  
"Get back to the tent now, if they can't find you, you'll end up here with me. I don't know how long he watched us but if it was more than a few minutes he'll know you can throw too." Elm's voice was panicked urgent, she had slipped from the tree and tried to look like worried family as she headed for their tent. She couldn't look guilty. Never let them know how you truly felt. When she had made it back to her tent it was in flames all their possessions gone, so this is the lesson for the family, it would take a year to pay off the debt to re-buy the equipment lost. As she watched it burn the head peacekeeper leaned in to her ear "I know your family are rebels, and your handsome little cousin has just given me the proof I need" his voice slithered in her ear like a snake, and eventually settled in her stomach like a hard stone.

By the time she snapped out of her day-nightmare she was back at the train, she slipped into her cabin. She immediately slipped off her clothes and got in the shower, it wasn't until she was in the hard-hot water she noticed the sticky bread still in her hands, she dropped it on the ground and stomped it into a gloopy mess, watching it slump down the drain. She hated peacekeepers, she had never met a good one. They must do something horrible to them in school to turn them into such heartless beasts. Eventually the shower sprayed her with foamy soap in the same rosy scent from the nuts of reaping night. She was beginning to love the sweet smell so different from the spicy smell of pine from home. It clung to her skin longer than the other perfumed soaps, and she could slip into sleep at night dreaming of fields of flowers. As she was stepping out of the shower Palatine walked into her room, she quickly covered herself with a towel, not that she thought he would notice, if she were Alder she might have worried. "Blight and Camellia want to see you in the living car, Alder is already there. Hurry along dear, your keeping everything waiting" Everything? Surely he means everyone. It's not like I could hold up the train, as she walked towards the couches she watched a train pass on another set of tracks, her reprieve from the motion sickness was over. The other train had made it through the bad weather quicker than she thought, tonight they would be moving again. Blight smiled as she walked into the room, Camellia just scowled in her general direction. If she hadn't talked to her earlier Johanna might have been a little intimidated.  
"It a good thing they want to be trained separately, I wouldn't take on a dead child willingly. We might even get a victor this year." Camellia was playing harsh very well and Johanna wondered if it was because that's how she actually felt about Alder and was more upset that Blight had caught on to her scam before her.  
"I don't see how that's a problem she's pretty enough to attract some sponsors at least. There are always a few who want to bet on the underdog. It'll be easier if they only get training from one or the other of us anyway. That way there will be no confusing signals" Blight grinned at her. Alder scoffed "Why would anyone sponsor her, I'm the better bet. I mean come on look at her she can barely stand on her own two feet, she's been so nervous for the ride in that she hasn't kept anything down. I hear here all night long vomiting. She's a waste of effort Blight, leave her for the bloodbath you should both focus on me?" well he was making it easy for her to kill him that much she knew for sure. Blight frowned and so did Camellia but not long enough for Alder to see  
"that may be the case but during the interviews you probably don't want the world to know. You'll get more sponsor as her protector." Camellia said in a syrupy voice.  
"Yeah I never thought of that, valiant hero, protector of the weak" He smiled to himself, pompous ass Johanna thought.

They were just sitting down to dinner when the train started to move again. Palatine clapped his hands like a child "Children it's amazing, the capitol is just a few hours away, and we will get to arrive at night, no of the other players ever got this view, well except for the victors. It shines like a jewel at night. A tunnel and the pop" he clapped his hands again "we are there. Out of the dirty provinces and into the most beautiful place in the whole of Panem." His eyes gleamed, all Johanna could think was are all the escorts this dopey, and he acted like he had been dropped on his head. His happiness made her sick, this excited little idiot thought that they wouldn't make it.  
"Palatine shut up!" Blight leaned across the table "we don't need reminders. They know why they are here."  
"Blight silly boy" so everyone was a boy not just children "I'm trying to get them excited, the games are the biggest event of the year and they are all doom and gloom" he pulled a sad face, which would have been comical if he had not been trying to be quite so serious "it's the social event, so many parties and events. So many wonderful places to see. It's so much better than that dirty hovel you call a district." Blight sighed and poured himself and Camellia a drink from a flask. Palatine shrieked so loudly that the dog in his lap barked. It was the first sound that Johanna had heard him make, she was beginning to think the fat little thing was stuffed.  
"Is that illegal alcohol. Tip it out, we cannot have moonshine on the train." He puffed out his blue cheeks, ad was squeezing the dog so hard it looked like it was going to pop. Camellia laughed  
"don't worry Palatine there won't be any left on the train by the time we finishing going through the tunnel. A flask wouldn't last 2 hours on this train let alone 8." Johanna looked at them disgusted a quick pop was going to take 8 hours.  
"8 hours?" she stammered  
"well 6 to the tunnel because we have to loop around the district 9 train, 2 through it to get to the capitol. So yes 8 more hours, I know it's a long wait but it will feel like nothing" Palatine looked at her with sympathy, she was guessing because he thought she was sad at the delay, not because it meant more time on the rocking vomit machine.  
"I'm going to bed then" she moved down to her room, this sucked, it had to be her year that a snow storm meant extra time getting to the capitol and it had to be her that got violently sick whenever she wasn't under her own propulsion.

She had been asleep for few hours when she felt a weight on the bed, still foggy she reached out to pull her little sister in closer, but when her hand hit the body in bed with her it wasn't Cam, the arm was to big the smell to masculine she opened her mouth to scream but a hand clamped over it.  
"It's time for you to pay me back" Gallium's voice oozed over her. He straddled her waist and leaned in to kiss her, those lips were thin, and his breath smelt like the starving boys. He had been drinking. Johanna reacted faster than she could think, she grabbed his hair and yanked backwards, he yelped and both hands flew to hers to try and disengage her fingers, while he was preoccupied she slammed the butt of her palm into his nose. The heavy guard fell and rolled, she knew something was up when he didn't get up, he didn't even groan. She calmly looked down at the now dead peacekeeper. She stepped over his body and walked towards Camellia's cabin, she had to tell someone. She knocked and slipped into her room, for the seconded time that night she was attacked, Camellia had she pinned to the wall, before she suddenly dropped her.  
"Sorry, you never really sleep well after the arena." She checked Johanna over, suddenly noticing the blood all down her front.  
"It's not mine" Camellia breathed a sigh of relief  
"you'll have some bruising around your neck, don't worry the prep team can hide it." Camellia paused "why are you here? Where did the blood come from?" she cocked her head to one side as she talked.  
"I killed a peacekeeper, Gallium, he was in my bed. He attacked me and I think I pushed part of his nose into his brain. Umm what do I do now?" Camellia just stared. Johanna hadn't shown any emotion, there had been no rushed monologue like outside the train, this was not a timid thing at all.  
"Firstly we get Blight, then we check Alder is still asleep, I don't need him knowing that you can kill. Then sadly we get Palatine and more peacekeepers. Luckily you're already assigned for death so hopefully you won't be punished. If we take just the right amount of time, they won't be able to do anything because of the cameras at the station. Get in the shower if you enter Blights room covered in blood, probably kill you." It was a calm assessment, she pointed her to the shower. "Please avoid the rose smell it makes me want to vomit" was her only statement as she left Johanna to the shower. When she stepped out there was a clean pair of black pants and a white top on the bed, her bloody pyjamas had disappeared. She had just finished slipping into the soft material when Blight entered the room.  
"You did a number on him girl. He bleed all over your floor, and bed. What the hell happened?" Johanna looked at the floor and related what had happened in the market earlier that day.  
"I just reacted I didn't even think, I knew it could kill, I overheard a group of peacekeepers talking once in the forest. I thought it would just hurt him enough to make him stop" she stated to weep again, but pointed to her ears just like Blight did when he told her about people listening in. This was part of her act, and she hoped he knew. Both the mentors grinned, they knew what she was doing.  
The trains head guard walked into Camellia's room, he was a fat man. His balding head was out of a helmet and he was sweating with the effort of walking down the train. His pot belly stretched the armour which looked about two sizes too small. He had a red nose, gin bloom, her mother called it, too much to drink. He looked at her sobbing on the bed and just shrugged.  
"Gallium knew not to mess with Snow's goods, I guess he thought it didn't matter as she is fodder anyway. I'll file a report, any punishment will happen after the ceremonies. She'll need to stay pretty for the camera's." the man heaved his weight out of the room, Johanna thought she could almost feel the train shift in response to his weight.

When she walked out to the living car Alder was slumped on the couch, the television had been retracted back to god knows where and the roof was now clear as were the sides. Palatine glared at her from one of the chairs, guess he knew by now then.  
"I've just been watching the tunnel, the capitol should be appearing soon. Palatine woke me up so I wouldn't miss it."  
"Yeah Blight got me up for the same reason." She slid onto the couch next to Alder tucking her knees up to her chest, the rock continued to flicker in the trains light as they passed through the final part of the tunnel. The mentor joined them, both had a scrubbed clean look, Johanna guessed that they had been in her room tidying up. Finally the train burst from the end of the tunnel, the capitol was laid out before them. Palatine hadn't lied it really was stunning, the city sparkled in the clear night light reflected of the falling snow. The lake that lay between the tracks and the city was frozen over, and she could see citizens skating on the ice, like little beetles, they swirled around each other in a magical dance. The glimpse of the city was quick, and Johanna was enthralled with its beauty, the way it sparkled and gleamed. They pulled into the train station and she heard Blight mutter under his breathe "Time for the show to start" it was a warning for her, she needed to keep up the act every second she was in this gem, or it might shatter out from under her feet. The twisting shards adding to her demise. She made herself small and scared again, tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked into the swarm of reporters.  
"Alder fancy your chances?"  
"Crying girl, how long will you last?"  
"Camellia, Barking burnt anything important this year?"  
"Alder, what's your strategy?"  
Johanna changed her opinion they weren't a swarm they were vultures, they were here waiting to pick of her remains. Thankfully they were quickly whisked away into a car, and driven to the training headquarters, now she thought the game really begins.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N So i had my first review. Yes i know she is a bit Mary-Sue at the moment, please give her a chance to get to her games. All will change, and she will gain her murderer title very quickly I promise. Also I will at some point in the near future re-edit those first few chapters, so they flow better. They were typed in one sitting so I know they are a bit rushed. **

The car had disappeared under the black building, the fast ride through the streets had actually terrified her. Eventually it came to a stop, Palatine jumped out and clapped his hands, and "these are your prep teams". He gestured to 6 brightly coloured people across the room  
"They will spend the next 24 hours getting you ready for the parade, extra time. Our tributes will look stunning for a change." Like trees again she sulked, we are always trees, she had to admit there weren't really very many options for her district if your only concept of trees I what you saw in pictures. From the screaming ride through the city they didn't really have much plant life. The prep team really were beetles, their hair was hard and shiny, filled with a glittering substance. They talked so much that their chatter just faded into a buzz. Inane snippets occasionally filtered through to Johanna but she had no real need to understand or like these insects. They stood her on a table and inspected her, while she tried her best to ignore the fact that she was naked, and being treated like a cow for slaughter. The green one buzzed about her nails, the red one about her hair, the yellow one looked like a tracker jacker and said nothing just stared at her legs. In her head she just be called them by their colours, they hadn't bothered to introduce themselves anyway. Red tugged at her hair

"Do they breed any blondes in 7 just once I would like something other than this black. The district 1 and 2 tributes are always stunning." No we don't have blondes she thought, and if I wasn't dressed as a tree maybe I wouldn't look so boring. She crossed her arms over her chest just to have them separated again.

"At least the boy is pretty. She's just so average it'll take some work."

"Have you seen her eyes? so rare. The middle of each eye is brown, the outer part green. Do you think is natural?" Red gushed, Yellow looked positively jealous. Well at least something about me is worthy she thought to herself "Pity it's not a more exotic colour like grey, purple." Guess not, these people must have been dropped on their heads, she had never heard of anyone with purple eyes. Her green ones were rare enough and even they were stained with the brown of her district.

"The skin is so olive, we'll have to pale her up a little" bleach me she thought. The process took hours of soaking and re washing her skin, it burned and stung and she hated every second. Red and green buzzed about how lucky they were to have extra time to do this. Johanna hoped that it was permanent just so she would never have to spend hours feeling like her skin was being burnt off and regrown every 15 minutes.

"She's a bit small for a 17 year old. Skinny to" Green began to rub some kind of gel into her skin, it stunk and was slimy.

"Lay over there, we needed to remove this hair, it's like they don't have any hygiene standards out there. They are always so hairy." Yellow looked mildly happy, she wondered if her prep team enjoyed inflicting pain on others.

Red yammered away while Yellow began to wax every part of her body. The ripping sensation destroyed the veneer of civility she had and she began to swear every time they ripped another layer off her, they bleaching process had obviously left her hair unscathed. She was not sure why but the waxing process seemed far more excruciating because her skin had already been tampered with. The prep team ignored her, this was torture, and the way these bugs kept talking away they did it by choice. Idiots. They primped and preened for hours, eventually after her third bath in something odd and faintly chemical smelling she slipped into a slumber. There was no way she was going to get a say in what they did to her, so she may as well get some sleep. They table floated her as she slept, the prep team had no problem accessing every part of her.

Finally she was awoken with a tap, Yellow was standing in front of her holding a mirror, in full length she could see herself. They had lightened her naturally olive skin to a pale white all over. One of the creams had filled in her bony bits, her ribs were flat rather than ridged. They had put her into some kind of slip that covered her chest stomach and upper thighs while leaving her ribs, and back bare. Well at least the important bits were covered. Painted on all her visible skin were autumn oak leaves, they twirled round her arms and across her back, her legs were awash of green and gold. The only part of her without leaves was her face, even her hair was twisted into branches topped with fall leaves. She looked like the ghost of autumn, it was horrible. She hoped the dress looked better.  
"You can sit but don't damage anything Ausat will be through in a little while with dress." The red one said she looked awed with her work, Johanna decided that it was policy in the capitol to drop babies on their heads. There was no other way that 3 people could be so shallow.

"Stunning just stunning" Green was muttering behind her.

They left her in the silence of the empty room. She eventually ordered some food, being careful not to damage her costume she ate for the first time since she had entered the prep room. Bread from her district full of nuts, fruits and cheeses, and a tray of meats with thin crunchy bread. The Avox had refused to bring anything that wasn't finger food. Being very careful to break each morsel of food so that it passed through her lips without touching her perfectly applied lipstick. She ate until she felt ready to burst. How she missed eating on solid land, she was able to devour this meal without feeling sick. While she waited she wondered about her family. Ever since she had killed Gallium she worried that her family would be punished, but so far nothing had come of it. Nothing had even been mentioned from anyone other than Camellia and Blight, she worried. In this alone time she had expected something to come of it. Now would be the perfect time to meter out punishment, the prep team used to have a whole day to cover her bruises, but she wasn't sure how long was left of that. Even better they could have crippled her making her an easier target in the games, but nothing had happened she hadn't even seen a peacekeeper since they had boarded the car to enter the tributes building.

What felt like hours had passed before a skinny woman with a wooden face walked into the room. Ausat, the idiot who had dressed her district for as long as she could remember.

"I'm am your stylist, Ausat" she announced in dramatic fashion. She pulled out a leaf covered mini it fit the slip, so this was the god awful thing she was going to have to wear. Ausat helped her into it, and checked her over. Johanna looked in the full length mirror, it wasn't that bad, minus the canopy hair. As she was looking at herself the woman came up behind her, she had a bark collar, clipped around her neck. It rose into her hair at the back and had loops that wrapped around her breasts in the front. Johanna nearly laughed, this was more like it, awful absolutely awful.  
"I thought you were 17, your chest isn't nearly big enough for this piece" Johanna breathed a sigh of relief, maybe she wouldn't have to wear it. Ausat was rummaging around in a draw behind her, suddenly the older woman slipped what felt like a lump of meat under her right breast. Followed quickly with the left. Johanna now had a large chest that supported the collar.  
"Perfect, my vision come to life. Now careful that bark is real so don't move your head we don't want it to flake off" the wooden face attempted to smile, but nothing moved. Fantastic she thought I am stuck like this. I hope Alder looks just as bad, with his arrogance he might actually be able to pull off a decent tree costume.  
"Have you ever thought about something other than, well, autumn trees Ausat?" she looked her stylist in the eye, the first capitol person to receive this gaze.

"Why ever would I. What else do you do?" a very good question Johanna stayed silent content to study the stylist face.

Standing in the light she could finally see why Ausat's face was so wooden, the muscles under her face didn't move, her eyes the iris a vibrant blue, the area that should be white a stunning silver, were the most expressive feature. Her lips opened when she talked but barely shifted to form words, it seemed that most letter formation came from her tongue. Johanna had a sinking suspicion that this was one of those "capitol surgeries" gone very, very wrong. For a woman who must be in her later 50's she had a remarkably young physique, but was short. She barely reached Johanna's chin, thinking back to watching the games, she was sure the woman appeared taller on television. Maybe she stood on a chair just out of camera's angle, the thought made her snicker. Finally a pair of moss covered shoes slipped on to her feet. In the mirror she looked like a tree, nothing memorable.  
"I had to make these much higher, you must be the shortest contestant in a while." Johanna could only remember a hand full of games, for her age definitely, but there had been a 12 year old the year the twins were born surely she was taller than a child. She had never walked in heels before, the platforms didn't help with the balance, she wobbled with her stylist to the elevator, Ausat would occasionally offer tips, but none really helped. By the time Alder reached them she could at least stand without feeling like she was going to topple over. He looked incredibly grumpy his outfit matched hers, although he wore pants, rather than a dress, and his torso was bare. His collar surrounded the nipples on his chest matching her own. His prep team also seemed to have shaded in his stomach painting over his muscles making them seem bigger. Maybe the prep team really were there to help she thought bitterly, but not her. As they boarded the elevator her stomach plummeted through the floor, she would have to ride in another contraption, I hope this is short enough that I don't vomit. Her worried thoughts about vomiting on the carriage were interrupted by Alder's stylist.  
"Smiles remember we have to love you" the younger man beamed, his face was not wooden at all. He looked similar to Ausat, but how Johanna couldn't tell. This place was so strange especially in the way they treated their faces and bodies, this younger man's face was covered in a tattoo that changed colours under his skin. His lips were over full, but he looked more human than the insect prep team who met them in the car park. They buzzed about her, brushing away bark that had scraped off in her hair before finally leading her to the black carriage. It looked as if they had been some of the last to arrive, the two skinny tributes from 12 were huddled next to their cart. Naked except for a sprinkling of black, which she assumed was coal dust, and some gaudy hat with a light on it. The girl covered her breasts, when she moved Johanna could see there was nothing over them, the poor girl. Ausat suddenly had far more respect in her eyes, at least the old woman hadn't left her naked and vulnerable. The district 1 pair were wrapped in material the flowed like water, white with wreaths upon their heads, they looked like some ancient drawings, Johanna thought it was a bit rude to crown them before the game had even started. The boy and girl from 2 looked almost exactly like last year's tributes, there hadn't been much change. They were painted in a white, and looked like marble statues, they both carried bows no arrows she noted. Both were naked from the waist up. This year was a nudity year she thought, as she scanned the room she noted that at least half the female tributes wore nothing above the waist. Two of the boys wore nothing at all, the rest were bare chested. Blight wandered across the car park to them, the rest of the victors were helping the tributes into the carriages,  
"time to go up. Remember you want the crowd to love you." He lifted Johanna into the carriage, there was no way for her to negotiate the ladder in the shoes. Alder clambered up beside her, moving his head a little too much and showering his hair and shoulders with bark. Ausat hurried over kicking off her shoes she joined them, desperately trying to fix Alder's costume. She was still on there when district 6's carriage started to move towards the large doors. As their carriage lurched forward she jumped to the floor, sighing that "it would have to do". As they moved onto the street they could hear her yelling,  
"DO NOT MOVE YOUR HEADS"

The noise hit them like a way, the entire capitol cheered them through the doors. Johanna did her best not to move her head to much and focus on the square in the distance, the slow trot of the horses ahead was making her nauseous. The image of them projected on the big screen showed a white small girl covered in leaves, she did look like the ghost of autumn, and a tall strong boy. It was then that she noticed that Alder had been allowed to keep his olive skin, and that his colour against the leaves made him look stronger, while she looked sickly. Blight might have mentioned her strategy she thought. Trying her best to wave to the crowd she kept wobbling on the tall shoes. Occasionally throwing her arms out to keep here balance. Luckily the cameras were far more interested in the naked tributes from 4. When they reached the square she could tell the crowd was getting bored, the cheers were far less noisy, and in the VIP stands in front of her a few of the guests had begun to yawn. Johanna couldn't help feeling sorry for the district 12 girl. They had paraded her nakedness around, like they owned every part of her, and then couldn't even be bothered to cheer her on. She had never liked the capitol, but this hour long spectacle had made her hate them.

As the final carriage pulled into the square President Snow addressed the crowd, Johanna was barely listening to him, she studied the crowd hoping for a familiar face, or even a human one. She spotted the Victors sitting in a private section well away from the rest of the crowd of dignified officials. The stylists and escorts below them. The Victors faces were the only ones who looked mostly human, every person in the rest of the crowd looked altered in some way. She couldn't help thinking that they were trying to hide the things that made them human. The speech wrapped up

"…. As we welcome our tributes this year in celebration of the quashed rebellion 71 years ago, I remind all those watching of the sacrifice we have all made to keep this country in a state of Peace. Panem welcomes you. And may the odds be ever in your favour. I present to you the tributes of the 71 Hunger Games"

As snow wrapped up his speech the anthem began to play, they stood silent, eventually the carriages moved back through the streets to her home for the next week. She couldn't help but notice that the crowds had already started to disperse, many were drinking so much that they barely noticed the passage of the 12 carriages through the streets. Johanna was worried, these people became uninterested easily that she knew, but she never realised how quickly they lost interest in something novel. It did not bode well for her. She thought back to previous hunger games and realised why they usually never lasted longer than two weeks, these people would riot if it took that long to murder 12 children. The boredom of waiting for them to die could so quickly be resolved by forcing the tributes together.

The mood of the tributes was subdued as they re-entered the garage, each team was helped off their carriage and entered the elevator to at the far end of the room. Camellia was striding towards them muttering to Blight who was walking behind her. Both her mentors looked old today, she couldn't understand why. The capitol was open to them, she knew from the gossip announcements that filtered through the TV at home. A week with no information from the tributes was very boring so her parents would be watching a week of "Victor Programming" to fill the blanks. She really wanted to contact her parents, to make sure they knew she was all right, but mostly to make sure that she hadn't been punished. Her turn for an elevator ride finally arrived, the prep team and stylist had already headed up into the strange contraption. There were no elevator in her district, everything was single story, so that it could be torn down and moved as the forest receded, or re-grew. The elevator arrived to take her to her new floor, it was just going to be the four of them. Alder, Camellia, Blight and herself, but Finnick rushed ahead of the crowd. He smiled apologetically at the two mentors,  
"Special date tonight, I have to get ready." He sounded almost upset, Johanna thought, but then the man was wearing nearly no clothes, and had rushed ahead of at least three other districts leaving his tributes with an old woman. She couldn't feel sorry for him. He turned on the charm in the elevator, teasing Camellia to his floor.

"How's Barking Cami?"  
"Fine Finnick. I haven't had a red letter just yet. So he obviously is trying his best to keep it under control."

"Well if I knew someone as beautiful as you was receiving letters then I would be burning down buildings to get to you to."  
"Fin, he's my brother." Finnick smiled at her, his eyes sparkling

"It would matter to me. I always chase beauty. Never had a choice." His last sentence seemed almost melancholic, but his smile made him seem happy. Johanna was just glad that she didn't have to spend any more time in the small box with him. He stepped off the elevator at a level marked 4.

"All right kids it's easy enough to remember, our rooms are on the floor marked with a 7. Training rooms are the T button on the bottom. Don't go travelling to other districts floors, it's a sure fire way to get beaten up or start a fight." Blight paused here and looked both her and Alder directly in each other their eyes

"You do not want to enter the games crippled. And you will enter the games crippled if you don't play by the rules here." Alder shrugged his shoulders, Johanna bobbed her head.  
"They've seen us now it's not like they can replace us if we get hurt, or go missing." Alder muttered, Camellia wheeled around  
"Smart boy this one, thinks he has it all figured out. Do you think you look any different to all the other 18 year old boys from 7? Because to these people we are all olive skinned, black haired. They think we look exactly the same. Have you not noticed what they have done to your companion's skin" she pointed a finger at Johanna "It's permanent and painful, and they do it so she doesn't look like every other girl from 7 who has come through those gates, onto the platforms to die. From what I understand you squealed like a pig when they pulled out a few hairs. She re-grew every layer of her skin, and then had a fucking nap. When we tell you to do something you do it. No questions asked. Or you'll end up like Blights cousin." Alder stared at her open mouthed, they had never heard Camellia loose her temper. She was known as they quiet Victor, who patiently cared for her brother. Johanna was more shocked that one of the tributes had been Blight's cousin. The doors to the elevator pinged.

"We are going to continue this discussion in the living room." Camellia stalked away and the other three followed quietly, the prep teams who had been waiting on the landing quietly disappeared. It seemed like this was not the usual greeting for the District 7 room. In a spacious living area, there where puffy white couches, the walls had wood panelling, the floors were covered in a soft carpet, Johanna kicked off the shoes she could barely walk in, and wiggled her toes in the thick flooring. Palatine was watching a re-run of the parade on a television that took up an entire wall.  
"Shut that off Palatine. We just went through it." Palatine pouted at he hit a button on a sliver stand that was next to him. Johanna saw that the stand was next to every seat in the room. The television cleared and became a window that looked out over the city. The streets were alive moving and jumping. In the sky pops, and flashes of colour appeared and disappeared at random above the buildings.

"Fireworks, they got off to an early start. They dot usually appear till midnight." Blight growled as he pushed another button on a silver stand and the window went blank. Eventually the window matched the rest of the walls in this room, with its own simulated wood panelling.  
"Sit." Camellia growled. Then looking to Blight "Shall you start or shall I?"

"Better finished what you started on the ride up." He shrugged at her. She nodded her head and then turned to the couch that Johanna and Alder were sitting on.

"We are here to keep you alive. That is our job until you die. Alder you want to think you know better that's fine, I will devote my limited time to someone who can listen. The arrogant persona is good for the cameras but here cut it out. We know better, I have seen every tribute I have coached in 10 years die. There is nothing you can do different except win."

"We will coach you, not just for the camera's but also for the games themselves. You get one week in the training room, we cannot join you, and it is your time with the trainers and game-makers. I suggest you use that time to better skills you do not have. Use the scoring day to show off your talents. You have both decided on you personality for the games. Camellia is right the arrogant thing works for the cameras, Cinder used it effectively a few years ago." Johanna wracked her brain trying to remember a tribute named Cinder, and image of a tall muscular boy having his throat cut in the blood bath popped into her mind.

"Cinder was an idiot. He didn't listen to me or his cousin he thought he was capable due to family legacy. He died quickly." There was no joy in either of the mentor's voices, Blight looked upset and Camellia looked frustrated.

"There is only one piece of advice I have for the two of you, don't get killed. Our entire time here is devoted to doing just that." The woman turned and stalked away from the room. Blight stood slowly and beckoned them to follow him down a hall way.  
"The Avox will let you know when dinner is. If you don't want to see you faces every 10 minutes then avoid the living room Palatine likes to watch the games and their lead up." He pointed at two rooms "they are identical, pick one, it's your for the duration of the stay we are on the other side of the dining room" he gestured in the direction that Camellia had walked. With that he turned and walked away leaving them alone.

"Which one do you want?" Johanna was taken aback by Alder's offer. Normally he would have just taken a room and left her alone. She pointed at the one nearest her.

"They look tired. Guess all this excess in the capitol is getting to them. When I win I don't think I'll ever go back to 7." He smiled turning and walking into the room she had pointed at. Johanna wondered if what Camellia had said got through to him or if he would last long enough for her to have to kill him. She walked the five extra steps to the other room, inside was a bed, a dresser, another shower and a window. Next to the bed was one of those silver stands from the living room, she sat down on the bed and began to push the buttons. From what she could tell so far the top 3 controlled the light, and the bottom two blanked out the window. The largest button had a speaker next to it and the word AVOX written underneath, she assumed she could order food through it. She stripped off her costume dumping it on the floor next to the bed, it showered leaves and bark everywhere. Next she worked at her hair, trying to pull out the leaves, all it did was tug on her scalp and give her a headache. She jumped in the shower, hoping that the buttons and knobs all controlled the same things as those on the train. Setting the water at a medium warmth and higher power, she climbed in and shut the door. The paint on her arms and legs melted into a muddy brown, swirly down the drain. Once her skin was clean she decided to attempt to clean the tangle that was her hair. To her surprise the second she got it wet it melted out and down the drain, what she thought would take forever took less than 5 minutes to wash out. Sighing she enjoyed the warmth and water pressure. Eventually an orange scented foam covered her, and after a final rinse she stepped out of the shower. She eloped, standing on the other side of the door holding a towel was an Avox. The girl had to be no more than 12, shorter than her with golden locks, Johanna thought she might have to be from district 1 or 2. The girl still looked like a child as she handed her the towel and then left the room. These silent people scared her, they were so compliant to the capitol even after the punishment they had received. She wondered what the little girl had done, to have her tongue ripped from her.

The costume was gone, on her bed was what looked like a black jumpsuit in. When she picked it up she saw that it was pants and a jacket, underneath was some under clothes and a shirt all in white. On the back of the jacket and shirt the number 7 was printed in green. She slithered into her new costume. As she was tugging on a pair of soft shoes the Avox re-entered the room. She pointed at her and then the doors, clearly trying to get her to follow. Johanna exited the room, hoping that Camellia had calmed down enough for her to enjoy the very first capitol meal she would be able to keep down. She followed the Avox to the dining room, a large mahogany table with beautiful cedar and pine chairs dominated the room, Blight was sitting at the table nursing a drink. The others had not arrived yet, the table itself was set for 7 which she assumed meant that they would have guests. Blight looked at her a smile barely twitched the corners of her mouth

"How are we crying girl?" Johanna said nothing, she was breathing in the polished wood smells that reminded her or home.

"Do they decorate every floor with so much wood?" she whispered. She had to remember that Crying Girl was timid.

"This is supposed to make us feel at home, some get wood, some get plastic. They all get capitol versions of home" he pointed at the wall behind her, this was also a window/TV combination. For their meal it had been programmed to show a forest glen, grass and a lake surrounded by trees. Blight shuddered

"By the time we reach dessert they will be pumping in an artificial wood smell. They never seem to get it quite right. Like all things in the capitol it just seems peculiar in some way" He laughed to himself and stared into his drink. Camellia entered from the door behind him, the same Avox that had lead her here was now guiding her, Johanna hadn't even noticed the small girl leaving. Camellia walked to the bar on the same wall and poured herself a bright pink drink, sitting down next to Blight she began to sip it slowly. Johanna took a seat opposite them while they waited for Alder and whoever else was coming to arrive.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N So I know Collins had them travel for the victory tour in the winter meaning their games were in summer, but I found this odd. In an agriculture based economy you wouldn't want to pause the nation's workers for a game during harvest season. I'll revert to her way at some point, having a victor tour straight away and then a games in the summer of that year. There will be much outrage by the public, setting the tinder that Katniss and Peeta set smouldering. (Right now I am thinking Annie (using her illness as an excuse to change the tour, too sick to travel blah blah) but things may change). Also some parts are Collins work not my own, a few speeches etc. **

Dinner had been an absolute disaster. Johanna sat in her room trying to make up her mind if she should head back to the dining room. She could her Blight and Alder banging on opposite sides of his door. She suspected that Alder was still trying to get out after being dragged into his room. She poked her head out the door, Blight nodded at her and she moved back to the dining room. She slid back into the same chair she had been in before the whole dinner fiasco had started. Their guests turned out to be the stylists, Johanna had actually enjoyed the conversation, it had been about the fashions of the current games. According to Ausat they had a nudity year whenever the games before had been a little too boring. Johanna had to agree that watching the tributes freeze to death hadn't been exciting, they had just shivered till they fell asleep. It had also been a very short games, most of the tributes hadn't lasted the first night. Camellia and Blight had stayed strangely quiet throughout the discussion, she assumed that it was too tedious for them as they knew the ins and out of the capitol. Mostly everyone avoided talking about the games all together, she learnt that the stylist had trained at a special school, and that only the best got jobs working with the tributes. They spent most of the year following fashion trends, which changed weekly, when they didn't have a victor to dress. Both of them reminisced about past victory tours, Camellia's had been their favourite, girls had a far wider range of clothes in the formal wear category.

She had been sitting in her chair when Alder had launched himself at across the table. For the first time she had seen the speed that had worked so well for Camellia in her games. She had pinned the raging boy to the table, grabbing a knife and holding it to his throat. Johanna was pretty sure she had heard the other woman hiss in his ear that she hoped he died so she wouldn't have to kill him. She had asked the question that had kicked the whole debacle off.  
"How did everyone else die? I only remember a few, but it doesn't seem like we last very long." Johanna had muttered over the third course of their dinner. They conversation had slowed as they were enjoying a thick soup of vegetables and some dark meat. Camellia's answer had been short "They didn't listen." Blight's had been more in depth  
"Bad luck mostly. Our district are stronger than most of the other lower ones, so we often get quite a few tributes who brave the blood bath. I think Camellia is the only one who used that tactic and won." He looked at Camellia checking to see if he was right.  
"Bark used it, and my other brother Pine." Johanna stared at her, other brother? Did both her mentors came from unlucky families?  
"Camellia has lost all her siblings to this exciting game, they were rather excited in the capitol after her and Bark won to see her brothers play. We had to wait so long for the other one to come of age, and everyone waited with such anticipation to see if he would be reaped. Then of course that first year was so disappointing. I have very good friends who bet good money on the Trou family tributes." Palatine looked excited "I of course was not allowed to bet. But how exhilarating those games had been." He panted a little his feminine voice rising in pitch as his excitement bubbled over.  
"Shut up, and piss off you blue idiot." Blight rounded on their escort "How many times have I told you that we don't want to relive our games. Fuck off and learn some manners from Effie, she may not get many victors, but she sure as hell knows how to treat them." Blights eyes bulged as he yelled at the blue man at the end of the table. Palatine blushed a purple colour, and then stood from the table, picking up his now growling dog he stormed out of the room. It was almost comical the way he stamped his feet to the elevator the tail of his coat bobbing with every step. Ausat chastised Blight  
"He's only been at this for a short time, he's still learning."  
"He needs to learn faster." They continued their meal in silence for a few minutes, until Alder dropped his fork.  
"I'm going to brave the bloodbath. I'm just as strong as the careers, we've got the longest training period I can remember." Camellia and Johanna just stared at him, had he not heard anything that had just been said. Camellia just shrugged  
"You'll die then. We obviously don't have a winner this year." She put down her utensils, and began to leave the table, that's when chaos had broken out. Alder had launched himself across the table grabbing her arm,  
"You're a coward. You cannot just abandon me because your stupid brother used the same tactic and died" faster than anyone could move Camellia had pinned him to the table holding a knife to his throat.  
"I am not a coward, neither were my brothers, all of them made it to the final 6. I just don't bother wasting my time, there is no point getting attached to fodder. That's all you are, I warned you leave the arrogance for the camera's you seem to have forgotten who the only people in this room who have actually beaten the games are." That's when she had leaned in close and Johanna could have sworn she heard her wish him dead. Alder's face had contorted into a mask of pure hatred, she had never seen anyone look at another human like that, not even the head peacekeeper. Camellia dropped the knife on the table next to Alder's head, and began to stride out of the room. Alder grabbed the knife of the table and lunged for her, scrambling across the table he kicked several dishes to the floor. Blight had caught him, and that was why he was bellowing in his room to be let out, Blight was guarding the door and Johanna was sitting at the table eating alone. She didn't remember how she had gotten to her room, but she knew that during the games she would need that flight instinct. She was tucking into some kind of roast fowl with a crackling skin when two black armoured men walked in from the elevator they nodded at her and then headed down the corridor to the bedrooms. Soon after Blight and Camellia sat themselves back down at the table.

"Who are they?" she nodded in the halls general direction. Stuffing another mouthful of the fatty meat in her mouth.  
"Alder's escort." Camellia sighed. "He won't be allowed to go anywhere without them except the training room. We get a few every year, they go mad and need to be guarded."  
"Go mad?"  
"They attack us, pretty soon afterwards they try and hurt themselves so that they don't have to participate in the games. Calculated attack, they know we can do it, but we aren't allowed to hurt them." Blight had no food in front of them just a stiff drink, Camellia was pushing the food around her plate as she talked.  
"So 7 usually has a mad one?" Johanna asked, the Avox was bringing in the next round of food, she could smell it was a sweet course.

By the time either of the mentors decided to speak the table had an assortment of cakes and tarts on it. Johanna spotted one she remembered from the train, a pastry shell filled with custard, it had small fruits dotted along the top. On the same tray were miniature orange tarts with chocolate tops, a taste she was very much beginning to enjoy. The sweet fried dough from the markets was also there, the smell making her stomach turn, she would never be able to draw the memory of Gallium and that particular smell apart. Blight was the one who stayed quiet for a change, Camellia filled her in  
"Both Pine and Bark, Pine attacked me. He said if I had never won my games he never would have been chosen. Bark, well he was never exactly sane, he tried to burn down the training room while learning to make fires. He set most of the flammable equipment on fire, then stole some of the supplies and lit his bed on fire up here. Blight filled me in my first year mentoring. I had one other brother Core, when he was selected we knew then that my family was being targeted, he was my only other sibling. Bark burnt down his house that year." She took a deep drink "He was so angry, and he never learnt how to express it. Core was only 13, they had usually waited until we had hit puberty to reap us, but Pine had lost and my win was starting fade in the public memory." She looked sadly at Johanna "Your probably not even old enough to remember Bark's." that much was true, Bark was before she was born, but she knew about his win, they played it often in the promotional material. "He really wanted to be here for our last brother's games, but the capitol won't let him come. Core never attacked anyone, not even during the games, but he didn't make it out either." She smiled at Blight reaching out to touch his hand "It's why I don't have any children I could never mentor them through a games. Sadly I think if I had any they would be reaped rather quickly." She went to the bar behind her and poured another drink, she didn't return to the table. She picked up the bottle and headed for her room, Johanna suspected she wouldn't see her again till after her training session. Blight carried on where Camellia had finished  
"It's not uncommon, the year Camellia won one of the careers killed a mentor in his sleep. That boy entered the games unharmed, but he was so brutal that the game makers caused a rockslide that killed him. I think if they hadn't decided to take him out, Camellia wouldn't be sitting here today." He paused for a moment. Taking a deep drink of the liquor in front of him "We haven't had many, but I'm sure at least another player will be in a similar situation as Alder now. Those black armoured guards are a special division of the peacekeepers, they only work here. I wouldn't get on the wrong side of them. No-one knows about Gallium yet, but the report will be processed tomorrow while you're in training. I don't expect there will be repercussions, but I honestly don't know. If you're lucky you may get nothing, or just an escort, if your unlucky well let's not think about that." The pastry she had been nibbling on stuck in her throat. She had begun to think that she had gotten away with it, but she obviously was not that lucky. Now when her actions did come out there were going to be two very angry peacekeepers just outside her door, she really hoped that they weren't the revenge seeking type. Her previous experience told her that she was doubtlessly wrong, peacekeepers were very good at hold a grudge.  
"Don't think about it Johanna." Blight tried in his most reassuring voice, but the ends of his words were starting to slur.

She decided that she was going to attempt to get the best night's sleep she could. She headed for her room, the noise inside Alder's had died down, but only one guard stood outside. He had hard features, his brown eyes piercing nothing like her fathers. He nodded at her but the mask never changed. His armour was exactly like that of the peacekeepers only the colour was different. She nodded her head back at him, and went through the door to her room. She wondered if she would be able to sleep with the guard just outside her door. She took off the jacket keeping the pants and shirt on, and fell onto the bed. It was soft and moulded around her, rolling onto her side she pushed the AVOX button  
"I want my window to show a forest at night but I don't know how to make it do that." As soon as her sentence was finished, her window began to shift. The bright lights of the city faded out and what looked like video feed of the forest outside her home was there. Tall stands of pine in neat rows, if it was a video feed it wasn't a current one, as there was no snow. The land was in full summer bloom, there were wild flowers between the rows of trees and the grass was green and lush. Johanna thought she might even be able to place the summer, it had been damp so the grass hadn't dried. It had taken longer to cure the wood that year, and although the forest had been beautiful she didn't remember it fondly, they had been punished for not meeting their quotas. Their food allotment had been cut, and they had spent long days not working because the timber yard was full of wet wood. Luckily she knew that the trees they had planted that year would lead to a bumper fell a few decades from now, lying in bed she really hoped to see that cut. The games fell in the winter season for her district, they couldn't cut the wood so it was a good time to have the district on standby. Every now and then throughout history they had switched the seasons, to keep citizens on their toes. After meeting the capitols denizens she thought it probably had a lot to do with boredom, a boring games would need to be quickly followed. The air conditioning also began to pump in the simulated scent of the forest. Johanna smiled to herself, she knew exactly what Blight thought was wrong with the smell. There was no underlying scent of rotting vegetation, it was the censored capitol version of forest. A forest was never as clean as this fake one smelt, there were no sanitation crews in nature. She pulled the puffy cover over up over her legs to chin. At home this would have been a luxury, fought over and shared on a week by week basis. It quickly enveloped her in warmth and she drifted off to sleep. She could hear the crickets in the forest, and for the first time since her reaping she had a sleep without nightmares.

When Palatine barged into her room she hadn't dreamt at all. He shook her shoulder,  
"Up, up, Effie told me that the careers would be there well before 8am this year, so we will to. Come we don't want to be late." He grabbed the cover she was trying to pull over her head and dumped it on the floor. When he saw she had slept in her training clothes he sniffed the air  
"Well there is nothing we can do now, but I really wish that you wouldn't look so scruffy." He walked out of the room, his now pink coat bobbing along behind him. The door stayed open his hand in the way. She still hadn't moved out of bed.  
"Up young lady. Now. I will not be embarrassed by your lack of punctuality. It is incredibly rude to be late." He glared at her as she sat up and stretched, she sat on the edge of the bed reaching for her jacket. Finally she stood up and wandered past Palatine.  
"I'm up see. On my way to the elevator. Or would it be incredibly rude to eat before I went to training" she wasn't a morning person, but the words were out of her mouth before she could remember timid Johanna was still supposed to be in play. Crap! She thought to herself, I hope that he didn't notice, but it was obvious by the way that he was staring at her that he thought this was out of character. She smiled at him and walked to the dining room, the damage had been done, now she would just have to work twice as hard to convince him that she was still scared of everything. At the table she grabbed a few pieces of her home bread, still warm, and was nibbling on them when she walked back to the elevator. Alder was puffy eyed as the two black guards marched along beside him. His shoulders slumped, Johanna offered him one of the breads she was holding, and he took it. He didn't eat it just held it limply in his hand. Johanna would bet anything he hadn't slept at all. They boarded the elevator when it ping sounded its arrival, the guard who had been outside Alders door pushed the (T) button, and the doors slide closed. The ride was longer than the one up last night and Johanna suspected that the training rooms were several floors below street level. She studied the other guard, he was the same height as the first, and the armour didn't give away much, his hair was white and his eyes were red. His skin was so pale that she could see the veins in his neck, with him in her room Johanna decided she wouldn't have been able to sleep either. His face was set just like the first guards hard, unyielding. As they reached the training room Alder began to morph, by the time the doors slid open he was the same arrogant boy from last night. He waved at the guards on the way out, Johanna did her best to look terrified of them. Only 3 teams were already in the training room, Palatine had been right, it was the career districts. The trainer was lounging on a chair, waiting for the rest of the tributes to arrive, there were station but no instructors, so Johana just grabbed a table in the back of the room. She could hear the district 4 girl, Coral, chatting with the other careers. Alder had wandered over to the food. Johanna was sure they hadn't noticed how close she was, and that's why she could hear the conversation  
"Finnick said it's the girl we should take, something about quick reflexes. The boy is too arrogant anyway, he'd probably just crash around drawing attention. Besides she's so timid and weak, she'll never turn on us. The 7's are always strong, it's not like she couldn't manage a heavy from load" Coral smirked at the other careers. She was obviously trying to be the leader this year. The boy next to her shrugged his shoulders, she couldn't really tell but he looked like Glimmer the boy from 1. "Let's see what they can do first. We have an extra few days to check them out. Maybe she's a quick learner. Or he's as dumb as a plank" Johanna wondered which was a more valuable trait to the careers. As the large clock on the wall ticked over to 8am the rest of the districts began to arrive. Finally the district 12's arrived, they looked skeletal in the workout clothes, especially next to the well fed, and muscled tributes from better fed districts. Finally the woman stood in front of the group.

"My name is Atala, I am the head trainer here. At each of the stations there is an expert use them well. In two weeks, 23 of you will be dead. One of you will be alive. Who that is depends on how well you pay attention over the next four days, particularly to what I'm about to say. First, no fighting with the other Tributes. You'll have plenty of time for that in the Arena. There are four compulsory exercises. The rest will be individual training. My advice is don't ignore the survival skills. Everybody wants to grab a sword, but most of you will die from natural causes. 10% from infection, 20% from dehydration. Exposure can kill as easily as a knife." The woman had dark skin, she smiled and bright white teeth shone out from her mouth. She was muscled, like a prised fighter. When her speech was finished she headed over to the weapons, she chuckled as the majority of the careers followed her. The rest of them spread out to the other stations. Johanna already knew how to make a fire, so she headed for the poisonous foods sections. Alder stalked the careers, picking up an axe and throwing it into a dummy. He was showing his skills straight away. The 14 year old from 2 joined her at the poisonous food stand, Johanna nodded at her. They settled in for instruction. She learnt that the best way to avoid being poisoned was to avoid any plant matter, and if it was bitter, spit it out and rinse her mouth out. That's if there is water she thought to herself. She left the girl at the station and moved on to plant identification, she knew something's about a few of the trees but she was hoping to find out which plants would give her water. Watching the games every year she knew how quickly a lack of water would kill her, but first it would make her clumsy and slow to re-act. She hoped if there was little water she would be able to milk the plants, and then use her hydration against the other tributes.

By the time the whistle had blown for lunch break she had moved on to a fibres, she was learning to make rope from everything. Stripping the fibres out of long leaves to braiding different barks together. The careers ate as a group nosily joking about each other's talents. Alder begrudgingly sat with her, he glared at the back of the careers head's. The rest of the room was quiet, most of the districts ate together but the only group talking were the careers. The four from 12 and 11 were together eating as much as they could. The boy from 8 was sitting at the table with the wire twister from 3, that alliance made Johanna nervous. They girls from the same districts were sitting at the same table but as far from the two boys as possible. Odd, she noted, maybe she would talk to them see what was going on. Lunch was quickly wrapped up, Alder quickly went back to joining in the arms training. Not worried about his fate she moved on to the traps section, and spent the rest of the day learning not only how to catch food, but also how to catch people. The traps were pretty similar, just bigger and smaller versions. Her favourite of the day had to be a warning trap that signalled a person's approach by moving a bush. She liked the idea of warning herself and distracting her attacker.

When the bell rang to signal end of training she headed for the elevator. Alder was talking to Atala so she entered with the tributes from 12. Up close she could see that they were starved, the bones of their cheeks jutting forward, eyes sunken into their skulls. She wondered if they would even make it to the games. Both clung to the railings to hold themselves up. Even after a few days of capitol food and they still had no strength. There was no acting here, these two really were as weak as they seemed. She arrived back on here floor to Palatine pacing,  
"The guards just left. You must be starving Camellia and Blight are waiting for us in the dining room we will eat as soon as Alder has arrived." His voice was almost squeaky  
"Palatine what's wrong?" the blue man stopped pacing for a moment to look at her.  
"He attacked Camellia. That is such inappropriate behaviour, I had so enjoyed his company. Such a bright boy, but now manners there just seem to be none in the outer districts." He managed to look indignant and surprised all at once.  
"Its ok Palatine we'll be gone in a few days" he turned to her shocked again by her strange response. Johanna smiled shyly, trying to make it look like a mistake, before hurrying to the dining room. She was beginning to worry herself every time she talked to her escort her character slipped, and it was obvious that the escorts shared details with each other. She hoped that she was just a curiosity, and that Alder was still his main focus of attention. The stylists were back, Alder's outburst hadn't scared them away permanently, and Camellia and Blight were nursing drinks. Blight was already flushed a rosy glow across his cheeks, his eyes seemingly loosing focus. Camellia wasn't much better but at least she was sitting up straight, the two looked like they still hadn't finished drinking from the night before. Johanna shrugged, there wouldn't be any coaching tonight anyway, and the interviews weren't till the end of the week.


	6. Chapter 6

Dinner had been a strange meal. Palatine had desperately tried to keep the conversation on polite terms, while Alder and Johanna had little to say. She tried to eat as much as she could, but the rich food that she was now able to keep down was making her ill. Her family very rarely ate this well and her stomach was rebelling at the new food. The rich sauces and soups often made her feel worse, but the rich fatty meats often didn't help. She was trying to eat as much as she could, starvation was a real option before the end of the month. She enjoyed the dessert course yet again. The fruity sweet tarts with rich thick cream were amazing, she loved them both warm an cold. They didn't often get fruit in 7 and never sugar. Encouraged by Palatine she tried cheese for the first time, it took lots of coaxing before she put the squishy, smelly lump in her mouth and chewed. She hated it at first, but the escort had been right the creamy texture had overcome her revulsion at the smell. It was wonderfully savoury and Palatine tried to educate her and Alder on the differing types, it went straight over her head. After the meal had been cleared they moved to the living room. Thankfully the television was off, and Camellia asked how training had been.  
"Fine I drifted around the emptier work stations, that little girl from 2 kept following me. She didn't want to hang out with Alder and the careers." Johanna shrugged, the fact the girl had followed her around had bothered her. She didn't want alliances in these games, they were only ever temporary. She would rather have people she could use. Blight nodded his head although she wasn't entirely sure that he had understood what she said. His eyes were completely glazed over now.  
"Alllldher?" he slurred Johanna was sure that Blight had been drinking all day. Alder's name was barely recognisable through the alcohol slur.  
"Hung around with the careers, Gleam's an alright guy. Gallus is pretty sure about himself, is a legacy apparently. Both his parents are victors and all aunts and uncles have competed. He was real proud of the fact that Enobaria is his aunt, the teethy one. Kept going on and on about it." Alder had kept his arrogant attitude from the training room. He sounded flippant rather than impressed by Gallus' boasts.  
"If we get rid of your followers are you going to attack me again? Not that you plan to take our advice, if you hung out with the careers today, you definitely did not do much survival training." She stared at Alder, Johanna wondered why she wanted the guards gone. She was sure they were here to keep her safe.  
"They give me status with the other tributes. They don't know why I have them yet, but most of the careers were still there when they arrived to pick me up. The boy from 3 has some too, they all came down together." Camellia shrugged, Johanna was worried. She didn't want Alder to get an inside edge with the career pack, she needed them for her plan to work. She looked around for the guards they had been barely noticeable at dinner sticking to the shadows. They stood at the back of the room now, far enough away to be discreet but close enough to intercept any attack from their charge. Alder spent the entire time trying to pretend they weren't there at all.  
"Ok they stay. Just be careful Alder, the Pack is not always what they look like to outsiders. They may have no interest in you at all." Johanna respected Camellia's attempts to give Alder advice but she knew they would fall on deaf ears.  
"When are we going to begin training for the big interview, they are talking about bringing it forward, possibly starting the games earlier" three heads spun to look at him, Blight was snoring into his chest.  
"Bring it forward?" Johanna stammered, her timid girl act wasn't needed her she was actually surprised, and worried by this news.  
"Palatine how far forward?" Camellia's response was far more measured. Alder just stared at him. Palatine played with the ruffles in his pink shirt, adjusting them under his lapels several times before answering. She couldn't help feeling frustrated at this little man.  
"Just a few days, the city was all fired up after the parade, but then the talk of how horribly boring the last games had been started. And the current buzz is how they have livened it up. Some are even saying that the Game Master has run out of ideas. I know Seneca Crane" Camellia snorted into her drink, Palatine gave her a withering look "we went through the academy together, and he is a very imaginative man."  
"If you know him, do you know what the arena is going to be this year?" Alder was leaning forward hope was smeared on his face like some greasy cream.  
"Now Alder my dear sweet boy that would be cheating if I told you. It would be incredibly un-sportsman like to reveal such sensitive information to you. How would it look to other districts if you had an edge?" He smiled to himself and leaned back in his chair, Alder's face was turning red with fury. Before he could say anything the two black armoured guards had walked across the room and began escorting him to his room. He went limp and followed, Johanna wondered what they had done to him to make him so compliant. She also suspected that Alder's rage was over nothing and that Palatine knew as much, if not less, than the other escorts. She was frustrated by his comment about giving them an edge, if anyone needed it they did. She had five tributes who were older, stronger and more prepared than her and those were just the careers, she wasn't even counting the other tributes that concerned her. From Camellia's snort she thought this was possibly a white lie that was told often, and that calling him out on it would do nothing. Definitely dropped on his head, she was sure it was capitol policy now, otherwise how could people be so naive.

As she was turning to leave the room the screen flickered to life. On a smaller window in the centre President Snow's face had appeared.  
"Palatine kindly leave the room, and fetch a guard from Alder's room, you should stay in there with him, for a short amount of time. I will send the guard back when I have finished here." Palatine got up and walked out of the room, down the hall. He was shaking. President Snow said nothing as they waited for the guard to return down the same passage. Camellia sat stiff staring to the left of the screen, Blight was the only person who didn't look effected by this sudden interruption, and he snored softly in the armchair. President Snow sat behind a large desk his hands steepled in front of his chin, the finger tips just brushing his fleshy lips. His eyes were ice cold. The dark haired guard entered the room and stood at attention behind Johanna's back, he was so close that she could feel the heat radiating out from the gaps in his armour.  
"Good you're here. Now we can start. Camellia you're looking well. How is your brother?"  
"Good sir, he has been working hard at keeping himself under control."  
"Yes, he has. I assume he wants to follow his son here if he is ever reaped. When does he turn 12?"  
"Next year." Johanna could see that she was on the brink of tears, she had never seen someone look so terrified.  
"Is he still living with you?"  
"Yes he lives in my house, his mother stays with me. It's safer." Snow chuckled, or Johanna assumed that the way his shoulder shook was laughter, he made no noise, and the cold expression never left his eyes.  
"And I see Blight has drowned his sorrows in fine capitol liquor again." There was a strange pause and President Snow studied Blight through the screen, she half expected the guard behind her to shake him awake.  
"Now to the matter at hand. Miss Mason, do you know why I could possibly be here?"  
"Yes. I killed a guard who attacked me on the train here." The guard behind her didn't even flinch, he was so close she would have known, either he was very well trained or he already knew what was going to happen next.  
"Yes exactly, you're a clever girl, Miss Mason" Johanna hated the way he said that, like his tongue wrapped around her name, violating it before it slide between his lips. "I am very excited to see how your strategy works out." Her eyes widen in surprise.  
"There is very little that escapes me. Now from what I understand Gallium had entered your room, and had surprised you awake."  
"Yes." She was going to go with brevity here, unless there was something she needed to defend herself from. She was not sure what the safest form of action was, but she desperately did not want to upset this man.  
"Are you a danger to anyone in this room?" She understood why the call had come now, not earlier in front of Alder.  
"No, not at this point in time, and I hope not to be in the future." She looked his image in the eye, something her mother made her do when she was checking to see if Johanna was telling the truth.  
"You hope not to be, Miss Mason."  
"If I am attacked, my reaction is to defend. If I win the games, I don't know how that will change me. So for now I am no danger to anyone in this room. Or floor, except Alder."  
"Very honest Miss Mason. I have read this report, did you intend to kill the peacekeeper?"  
"No. I just wanted to escape. I was trying to break his nose." This was her first lie to President Snow, she felt her stomach clench in fear, she hoped it wasn't visible on her face, the information that she knew her blow could kill Gallium could put her family in danger.  
"Sider, you and your brother are to treat her as if this information was unknown. She is no danger to herself, or anyone on this floor, except Alder. I am satisfied that there will be no more incidents. Miss Mason, you will need to be punished, unfortunately that will have to be decided after the games. Keep that in mind" Johanna stared at the screen as it blinked to black. The window slowly reappeared with the city-scape below. She stared at Camellia.  
"Was that good or bad?"  
"Both. If you die, you have been punished. If you win, well, be a crowd favourite Johanna. You'll need to be memorable." Johanna felt a hand grip her arm. She let herself be lead down the hall. As she left the room she watch Camellia shake Blight awake, he was wiping his eyes groggily when she lost sight of them. Outside her room the guard let go of her arm and for the first time he spoke, his voice was rich and dark  
"Wait here. We need to talk." He stuck his head into Alder's room and nodded to the other guard, Palatine slipped out the door, and practically ran down the hall. She could hear him babbling to the Mentors down the hall. The same voice came out of Alder's room  
"Don't move from in here. Remember to behave" both the guards were now in the hall, and pointed her towards her room. Once through her door, the white Sider brother pulled out a small bronze device and flicked a switch in the middle. The darker of the two began by filling in his brother  
"She killed Gallium when he attacked her on the train. Were supposed to treat her like we don't know. I'm not even sure I should be telling you."  
"He was an evil bastard. You saw her reaping video, she looked like a weakling, that's who he liked to prey on." Their voices sounded exactly the same.  
"If she took him out then she's no weakling, and Snow knows it." They were talking about her like she wasn't there, she climbed onto her bed, and leaned against the headboard.  
"Gallium was fat and lazy." Johanna remembered the muscle of his chest under her hands as she had tied to push him away, if they thought he was fat and lazy then she wondered how fit these two were.  
"He was stronger than her though. Think she can win it?" They turned to look at her  
"After Snow's little interrogation I'm not sure she wants to." They looked at her expectantly  
"Well I don't want to die." She shrugged her shoulders  
"I'll tell P.H." The white one nodded and left the room. He handed his brother the small bronze egg.  
"Wait who is Peahach? What's going on?" she almost yelled at the dark Sider brother, before quickly checking her vice so that Alder couldn't hear.  
"Not now later. Good luck Johanna. I hope to meet you after the games." He left the room turning of the switch on the bronze egg as he left, Johanna stared at the ceiling of her room, everything was so strange here. As she stripped out of her training clothes the forest scene re-appeared on the screen next to her. She climbed into bed and tried to sleep. Her dreams were filled with half-finished conversations, and roads that looped onto themselves.

When Palatine woke her up on the third morning she hadn't slept well, he back felt stiff, and her head ached. Not helping was the fluorescent green suit that he was sporting that morning. There were no tails, but the ruffles of his shirt were the same bright orange of the reaping. He was wearing tight three-quarter pants and the leather of his boots matched the colour of his suit. Everything had been normal like the conversation with the Sider brothers had never happened. They went to training, and she worked on survival skills while Alder tried to entice the careers.  
"One more day till the interview with Caesar, we will be working on your interview process, and outfits when you get back tonight. And then off to the Games. I am so excited." He was positively bouncing around her room her darted out the door, leaving her to get dressed, while he woke Alder. Over the past week they had finally fallen into a routine. He woke her then Alder, by the time she was dressed Alder was nearly ready to be escorted to breakfast with his black suited peacekeepers. Blight was sober at the breakfast table and Camellia pushed food around her plate. By the time they got back from training Blight would have had a few drinks, but since the conversation with Snow he was never that drunk. They ate and then Alder, herself and the guards would head down to the training room around 7.45am. The interviews were never brought forward so they still got the longer week for training.

Today was their last training session so she knew she would have to make her move on the Pack today. There were already some whispers about her going around. The careers had noticed that she was the only tribute not to pick up a weapon yet. She was pretty confident that she would be able to keep herself alive in almost any survival situation, she could identify most of the edible berries, and the major indicators of poisonous plants. Her trapping was getting better, she was pretty confident she could spot and disarm most traps, as well as set them. Today she decided that she would work on combat for the first time, hand to hand for most of the day. If she could master some of that then she might have a look into the distance weapons. She knew her strength could never match up to the Pack's probably not even Alder's so she needed contingency plans. As with the rest of the week the careers were already there, milling around, and they were the first of the non-career districts to arrive. Alder sauntered over to the Pack, and they ignored his presence, it was the morning ritual. He was tolerated like a dog, but was never welcome in their conversations. After the first day he had eaten at the same table as them, she ate on her own. Her worst nightmare would be entering an alliance with one of the weaker tributes, so she was doing her best to avoid them. Thankfully they avoided her to. The elevator doors opened to the training room it was the same as every other day, the careers were lounging around on the equipment. Alder wandered over to the district 4 boy and she took up her customary table in the back of the room. Today was different, the district 4 boy slipped away from the Pack and slid into the bench beside her. His copper hair fell in ringlets around his face, icy eyes looked at her, and Johanna took in as much as she could without directly looking at him. She waited for him to talk.  
"We are having a bit of a debate about you crying girl." It was a statement, she figured that he didn't really want to talk to her, but rather at her. Besides she figured he already knew what he needed to know from Alder.  
"Coral and Shimmer think you may be an asset, while Gallus, thinks that you're hiding something. Are you hiding anything Crying Girl?"  
"It's Johanna. I'm sure Alder has told you everything about me."  
"Well hello Its Johanna, I'm Kai. Very true, but I already know what I need to know about him. He has been boasting about how he got his guards. Now I want to know about the girl who hasn't picked up a weapon. Are you planning on winning without killing anyone?" he laughed, it was rich and silky, she figured that if he won Finnick would finally stop complaining about the lack of beautiful Victors.  
"I just don't want to starve to death, that Atala woman really scared me." Her lip quivered, and she could feel her eyes welling up. Kai didn't need to know that she was nearly biting through her cheek to get the tears. Kai smiled he walked back to the Pack, and for the first time in training ignored Alder completely. He had been the only one paying any attention to Alder and the rest of the Pack followed suit. It took until the final district had arrived for him to realise that he had lost his position, the Pack wanted nothing to do with him. He glared at her during Atala's last day speech.  
"I have watched you all train here over the last seven days. Some of you have focused on learning to survive and others have been working on your weapons skill. As this is the last day of training you may want to attempt something new, use your last hours here in the training room wisely. In a few weeks, possibly even days, one of you will return to this building. To the rest of you, I wish you a good death. Many of the ancient peoples believed that the battlefield was the only honourable way to die, and you will enter the arena. A battlefield that the Capitol provides every year for 24 lucky teenagers to enter. This time should have been used to better those odds. Tomorrow you will enter this room and await assessment, may the odds be ever in your favour. And I look forward to meeting one of you again"

Johanna didn't linger today she headed straight for the wrestling mat, the instructor there was a short skinny man with sinuous muscles, his blond hair was cropped short. When the lesson began it started with basic instruction on where to grab, and how to overpower a stronger competitor. She spent most of the morning being slammed into the mat, she was trying to look less proficient than she was, but constantly being dumped onto the floor was beginning to hurt. She eventually bested the smaller man out of anger.  
"You're finally getting it." He had muttered, as they began to wrestle again he whispered into her ear "I've never seen anyone pull it off so well, you're very good at hiding your talents. Not many try this tactic, but you might be able to pull it off" She lost her footing the coach knew what she was doing, he slammed her into the ground again. Helping her back up he whispered in her ear  
"Your secret is safe with me." They continued to wrestle, she had a suspicion that the coach was teaching her more than he was letting on. By the time the lunch bell rang she felt like her muscles were made of lead, she slumped in her customary chair, pulling apart a sandwich. She had discovered that she really hated the green spread that the capitol insisted on putting on every roll. She knew it must be a fruit or vegetable because they occasionally left it whole. Its creamy texture reminded her of the cheese Palatine had convinced her to eat, but it was bland almost grassy in flavour. When she looked up from her destroyed food the Pack was seated around her.  
"It's avocado, surprised they give it to us. It's really expensive" Shimmer pointed at the green stuff she had managed to smear all over her plate. "Don't you like it?"  
"Not really. It tastes like grass."  
"Eaten grass have you?" Gallus sneered at her. She had eaten grass actually, it was filling when there was nothing else.  
"Yeah I have. My mother had to boil it into mush one year so we had something to fill our stomachs." All the careers stared at her, obviously they had never been that desperate for food.  
"Taste any good?" Shimmer asked, she seemed genuinely curious.  
"Shim, she didn't eat it for the flavour." Kai looked at her, and then Shimmer. "Bet it's real bitter. Mind you if you say it tastes like avocado I could probably handle eating it."  
"Grass is much worse, and it is bitter. It doesn't have any of the creamy texture either." For some reason the pack found this hilarious and burst out into raucous laughter. She smiled shyly she wasn't really sure what to make of this intrusion into her usually isolated lunch break. As she looked past Gleam's head she could see Alder sitting alone, he shot her a look of utter abhorrence.  
"So how old are you Johanna?" Gleam asked her, there was malice under his pleasant tone  
"17, we had a lean year I never really grew after that."  
"This would be the same year you ate grass then I assume." She nodded her head. Coral had taken on the mantle of Pack leader that year, there was always one, and most of the time they were the games Victor.  
"Fine we'll take her. Kai fill her in at the next task make sure the big one doesn't hear you." The pack then continued a conversation about differing tactics, which Johanna didn't understand. She assumed Coral's statement had been an invite, but said nothing. As lunch finished she went up to Coral, scared Johanna was in full play now  
"Thank you." Coral turned to her, the killer glint in her eye  
"Look your just going to last longer than you normally would, your there to provide food, we don't need anyone to carry our stuff, no-one expects the Crying Girl to win."  
"I know, but now at least I won't die on the first day." Gallus smirked at her statement  
"Oh, Johanna you were never going to die on the first day, otherwise you wouldn't have spent so much time perfecting your survival training. You have a strategy I just wonder what it is." The rest of the Pack laughed again  
"Look Gleam, the other one's strategy was plain, she doesn't have one at all. Atala terrified her with starvation, and she just wanted to make sure it didn't happen again." Kai came to her defence, so he had brought her line about Atala, good she needed them to think she was weak. She knew the pack hadn't seen her reaping when they had asked her age, just heard the stories of the Crying Girl. Now she needed them to believe this boy from 4, the others didn't need convincing but Gleam suspected her. He eventually gave in with a shrug  
"I'd rather take the boy, we can read him like a book. Her I'm not so sure about. Let's hope your right Coral." Gleam sauntered off to the other side of the room.

Today was going much easier than she had thought, she hadn't had to approach any of the Pack they had come to her. She went to the distance weapons section, lined up on the wall were beautiful knives, a couple of hand axes, and some long pieces of wood. The instructor started the afternoon by explaining what everything was, the long pieces of wood were bows, used for shooting arrows. She had seen them used in the games before, they could be very effective. She picked one of the wall and went to the range. Kai followed behind her, he was exceptionally good with the bow, hitting the target every time, Johanna could barely get arrow to fly straight. She was desperately trying to make this work, but no matter how she lined up and drew the string her arrows were falling in the dirt no more than a few meters from her feet. Kai looked around.  
"Get away from the blood-bath, hide nearby, once it's all over come back and join us. Don't walk up behind anyone and make sure you identify yourself when you return. The rest of the time just do as we say. From what Enobaria has told Gallus there won't be much food in this year's cornucopia, we'll need your survival skills. Alder shouldn't know any of this."  
"How does Gallus' mentor know that there won't be much food?" Johanna was enraged that the careers might have an edge on the other districts, it was infuriating that they had so many advantages.  
"Apparently it's a pattern, I asked Finnick about it. When there hasn't been a Victor from the lower districts for a while, they lower the food ration in the games." She thought he was lying to her, but she couldn't be sure. She would ask Camellia when she got back tonight. Kai smiled at her and left to join the rest of the Pack, Johanna struggled with the bow for a few more hours before giving up. She looked past the edged weapons, and decided to spend her last afternoon in the edible foods section. At least her she was good at it, and she got to snack. She didn't notice Alder glaring at her back, as he watched her move around the room. She was trying to decide if the branch she was holding was from a willow or not when she felt someone join her. She smiled triumphantly  
"Edible, but not in large quantities. It'll make you drowsy." She turned to look at her companion as the instructor reached for a group of berries. She started she had expected her usual shadow, the little girl from 2, instead Alder's face was masked in hate, he glowered at her.  
"I'm going to kill you Johanna Mason, you stole my strategy right out from under me. Even if I don't make it out I'm going to make sure you don't either."  
"I didn't steal your strategy Alder, they were never going to take you anyway. They needed someone who was good with food, you know survival. The things that Camellia, Blight even Atala told us to focus on." Alder glared at her as the trainer turned back around, there were six berries in small groups on a platter. Johanna knew straight away that 4 of the six were edible. One of the poisonous ones was red, the other was bright yellow. She wasn't sure but she thought the flesh was edible but the kernel was toxic. Alder reached out and grabbed the red berries off the mat.  
"I wouldn't eat that if I were you. Its deadly." The instructor congratulated her, Alder threw the berries in her face and stormed off. Spoilt little brat, she thought as she wiped the juice off her face. She could also understand his frustration, she had felt the same for the last few weeks, watching him hang around the Pack, but she hadn't taken it out on him or anyone else. For the rest of the day she was left alone by the other tributes, and even the little girl from 2 had stopped following her.

By the time training was over, she felt prepared for what was coming. Far better than she had been for the last week. Her final station of the day had been the fire building one. She wasn't just terrified of starving to death, she had watched the tributes freeze last year. It had been incredibly terrifying, she wanted to make sure that she had warmth. It wasn't until the elevator ride back, that she realised how much watching the other tributes games could give you an advantage. She definitely knew what she wanted to avoid, how quickly to leave the careers to kill themselves and that at some point there would be a dramatic twist, she hoped that was her. There would also be a feast, if Kai was right this year it was going to be food. She thought back as far as she could trying to remember a games without a feast. There had been water in the desert year, fire and blankets last year. She couldn't remember any, she would have to ask her Mentors. She assumed a quick games wouldn't have one, the tributes not being around long enough for it to be of worth. The shortest games she could remember had been Camellia's they had lasted just over 8 days. She stepped into the elevator, and headed back to her floor. She was actually looking forward to dinner tonight.


	7. Chapter 7

She was still thinking about the length of the games, even last year's games had lasted over a week, the feast had held blankets and fire bowls, at least that's what her district had called them, they were pinecone sized bowls that held flames that never went out. Once the pack had the tools to survive, they had spent the rest of the time killing a tribute a day. Blight met her on the landing to her floor, he had his customary drink in his hand, and surprisingly one for her in the other. As he handed it to her he smiled. She took a sip of the amber liquid and it burned her throat.  
"Did you get it done?"  
"I didn't need to, Alder freaked them out with his arrogance. Kai the boy from 2 came to me. I actually have to ask you and Camellia a question, is she here?"  
"Yeah in the dining room, let's head there." She took a sip of the drink it was sweet and tasted of cherries, and vanilla. When they got to the dining room Camellia wasn't there. Blight poked his head around the corner, she could hear the television. As they entered the room she could see that Camellia was watching the propo's. Finnick was on screen, he was again complaining about the lack of beautiful people, and how lonely the capitol was for him. He mentioned that he was looking forward to celebrating a victory in four again, and that he had high hopes for this year's volunteers. I was sickening, but she couldn't help noticing the way he laughed, it was just like Kai.  
"We been up yet?"  
"No. But we must be soon, they've shown most of the districts already."  
"Not in order this year?"  
"They probably were in the beginning but I only just turned it on an hour ago." The exchange was quick, like a regularly established pattern. They didn't have to watch the propo's at home. They played in the town centre, but it wasn't compulsory like other parts of the games. She very rarely watched them, it was more background noise if they were doing any shopping in the square. Another of the district 4 victors was on screen now, she had the same red-hair as Coral, and she gushed about how exciting these games were. Johanna noticed she smiled in the same way.  
"Is she related to Coral?" she looked at Camellia and Blight who both frowned.  
"It's different there. They want to be selected, it her older sister Aurelia. It's an honour to have more than one in the family, so it's not terribly unique for Victors to mentor their siblings or children." Johanna looked at the screen, she was talking about how her sister was a fighter just like her. Blight's face appeared on the screen, he was wearing make-up because the redness around his nose and cheeks was dulled.  
"Alder is a strong boy" Shot of him at the reaping "We might have a contender for the first time in a few years." A shot of her, she really did look pathetic at the reaping.  
"You never know, she might surprise everyone. When you're faced with survival sometimes you change."  
"Has she changed at all since coming to the capitol?" it was Caesar asking the questions, funny she thought to herself, the careers don't need prompting.  
"Not really. She is terrified really, but I can always hope, it's my job to get her through the games." Blight was trying his best to look like a Mentor caught in a lie, he was doing quite well really. Camellia didn't talk about her at all, but of how Alder's strength reminded her of her own, how he was as talented and as quick as she had been. When Caesar prompted her to talk about Johanna she shrugged at the screen  
"Some tributes have to die for others to win." Johanna laughed at the screen, there was no use hiding her strategy now, everyone here knew it.  
"Wow, that was harsh. Do you really feel like that?"  
"Well in truth yes, just not about you. If you're looking for comfort know that I just reversed the names. What I said about Alder I mean about you." Camellia looked cold. That means that she knew Alder would have to die. They sat in silence as Haymitch drunkenly slurred his way through monologue about his tributes. For all Caesar's prompting he seemed to think his tributes would die, and nothing was going to change his mind.  
"Kai said something today and I want to check with you. He mentioned when he recruited me that they were taking me because they needed someone good at survival. That the games get short on food when there hasn't been a victor from the lower districts in a while." Camellia shook her head, but Blight nodded.  
"It could be true, I noticed it but didn't put two and two together. It would defiantly be something that Career mentors would be on the lookout for. They don't train for survival, as the strategy has always been to claim the resources in the beginning. You don't need to look for food and water when it's provided for you. Hell shelter is usually in some of the bigger packs as well" Johanna cocked her head to on side  
"Shelter. Like tents? I've seen tarps but never anything better"  
"Yeah, in my games there were tents to keep us dry. Well, there were two tents and they were yellow, so the careers used them as traps for weaker players. Really easy to spot at a distance, and many of the other tributes flocked to them." They never talked about their own games, and she stayed quiet hoping they would talk more, but after a few minutes it was obvious they had nothing else to add, she kept her silence anyway.

Another victor was appearing on screen when the elevator pinged, and Alder stamped into the room a few moments later, he must have waited for a bit in the foyer. He was in full blown temper tantrum.  
"Mason, you better get them to drop you. They need me."  
"I think you'll find they need who they have taken. I warned you, the Pack is never what it seems to outsiders." Camellia sounded condescending.  
"We told you to focus on survival." Blight was adding insult to injury, Alder was practically steaming from the ears.  
"You should make her drop them, your best bet is Me." He was practically screaming in frustration as he yelled at Blight and Camellia.  
"Our job, Alder, is to keep you both alive for as long as possible." Camellia was patiently explain to Alder who had no interest in listening to her.  
"If you're as strong as you think you are, you should be able to survive without the Pack's help." Alder didn't want to hear what Camellia had to say so he switched tack, trying to scare Johanna instead.  
"They'll kill you in your sleep. I told them all about how you cry in the night. They'll get sick of hearing you weep and slit your throat. How you whimper away, and call out for your poor dead cousin" He was trying to be nasty but Johanna was trying her hardest not to smile. Alder had been playing into her strategy without knowing it, making her seem weaker than what she was.  
"What are you grinning about? Didn't you hear me?" she hadn't realised that a hint of a smile had appeared on her face. She stared at him  
"Thanks for the warning, now I just have to hope the games end before I can sleep." She couldn't help herself, there was only one day left and she was getting bored with crying and looking weak.  
"You heard my strategy and decided to steal it. Johanna what I told you today is true, you better hope that the careers get to you before I do." She was surprised he didn't lunge for her, but the guards were really close this time. There was no way he was going to attack her successfully. The room descended into a strained silence, neither of the mentors spoke, and Johanna stared at the screen. Alder glared at her, she could feel his gaze burning into her. The propo's continued to play on. She hadn't realised that they sometimes played the Victors winning kill in the introduction, and by the time Palatine re-entered Enobaria had ripped out some poor kid's throat. Finnick had jammed a trident through an older boy's skull. Aurelia was in the throes of beating a boy to death with a branch when Palatine turned the television off.  
"Dinner time."  
"I was watching that. I want to see how these two won." Alder whined at him. Johanna hadn't heard anything so pitiful since she last appeared in public. The spoilt brat routine was starting to grate on her nerves, Alder only ever used it on Palatine, and it usually worked.  
"It's not the time now. When you win, Foxy and I will get you all the recap tapes you want." For once the little dog wasn't being carried, he waddled around Palatine's golden clad feet. The suit was silver this time, far better than the fluorescent colours that hurt her eyes. He wore gold shoes, cummerbund and tie, the look was horrible. She didn't think much of his fashion sense, but at least he wasn't dressed like a beetle.  
"We have guests for dinner tonight. The prep teams, Ausua and Ausat will be joining us, after dinner they will show you what you will be wearing for Mister Flickerman's interview." His voice was breathy and high pitched again, Johanna guessed that he had forgiven them for embarrassing him on the first night here. The dog was waddling towards the smells coming from the dining room, no-one seemed to notice he was leaving, Johanna watched his tail begin to wag as he sensed freedom, or food, she wasn't really sure.

The elevators ping rang, and everyone walked towards the landing. She realised then that the ping was to signal someone had pressed the button for their floor, not that someone had arrived. She had originally thought that the Mentors were just really good at finishing what needed to be said before Alder arrived in the room. The stylists sat with the tributes, while the prep team sat at the far end of the table buzzing away to each other. Yellow had walked to her room laden down with garment bags, she was going to have options. The table was piled high with food, it seemed they had skipped the usual salad course for this meal. Johanna spotted the crispy skinned bird from her first night, and pulled some onto her plate. There was a fatty stew, which she knew made her feel ill so she avoided it. Her home bread, and a fish covered in spices rounded out her first plate of food. Ausat poured her a glass of sweet white wine, she had never had it before. The bubbles tickled her nose as she drank, the prep team buzzing away about how the sparkling wine was their favourite. She finished her first plate of food, and was reaching for a hunk of red meat when an Avox entered the room it was the small girl, she was leading a tall thin man. She hadn't heard the ping over the noise around the table. The thin man cleared his throat to get everyone attention. The prep team were the last to go silent.  
"There has been a fire in district 7" he read off a sheet of paper "the timber yard caught fire when sawdust ignited in the drying room." The room was dead silent now, everyone was staring at the messenger. "There were several wounded but no casualties." There was a sigh of relief around the room, she had been waiting to hear that part of her family had been killed. The messenger continued to talk.  
"As Mr Bark Trou was the one to finally extinguish the flames, he will be joining the Mentors for the rest of the Games. He will be arriving within the next day." the messenger bowed to the room, turned and left. Ausat was the person to finally break the silence.  
"That's good news, right? No one died."  
"Yes, and No." Blight shrugged as he talked. "We don't know what caused the fire, yet. Bark, well, he's not exactly the most stable creature. He has a thing for flames, for all we know he set the fire."  
"More than likely. He wouldn't have extinguished it unless someone was in very real danger. Might not have even then, he can't resist it." Camellia looked terrified.  
"They wouldn't have let him come if he was responsible. You are such idiots. I swear the games have made you see danger everywhere. Its wood, it burns. Honestly there are fires in the drying rooms all the time." Alder was arrogantly muttering into his food.  
"You have no idea, they may be bringing him to the capitol for another reason. All the information we have has been supplied to us. Alder your father is a work yard foreman, Johanna's mother works in the yards as well. For all you know, they were the injured ones." Alder's face whitened a little. Blight had just pointed out that they didn't know who had been injured. Palatine broke the silence, he switched the forest scene to the television. It was a news program showing district 7. The announcer was talking in soothing tones, a picture of one of the smaller drying yards was smouldering in the background.  
"There was a small fire in one of the district 7 wood processing facilities today. Although several people were injured, they are all back with their families tonight. Luckily the facility had been closed for the evening and no-one was in the building. One of the districts victors was late to arrive on scene but took to the task of putting out the fire. His work along with that of the peacekeepers made sure that the fire could not spread from the drying room it started in. Production in this district will continue and the damage will be quickly repaired I am reassured by the major. In a statement he made today he said the wood had a tendency to burn, and occasionally an error in calculation caused small flare ups in the drying process. In other news the growing season may start early in 11 as they have had a recent warm spell, with the winter frosts not appearing this week. Production will still be halted in many districts due to late snow fall." Johanna stared at the screen. Palatine switched it back to the forest scape, the fake scent pumping into the room along with it.  
"See nothing to worry about" his girlish tone smiled to the room.  
"The capitol gets news on other districts?" Alder nearly shouted, Johanna was still staring at the screen.  
"Well yes but no-one watches it. It's frightfully boring, but many of the capitols business interests are in the districts. I have a very good friend, who is betting on you Alder, his major trade is in luxury wood from your district. He sells it to someone who has it processed into beautiful furniture. He gave me a piece for my bedroom this year." While the prep team began a barrage of questions about the furniture, Johanna couldn't believe it, their hard work was used by someone for profit. She had always been told that the capitol need the wood to be shared equally throughout the districts. Not she knew what for, they cut it into planks, dried it and then put it on a freight train. They kept some back if they needed to build an extra building, but they had to make sure the same lot left the district. The meal progressed Avox, a pair, cleared the table and an assortment of fruit, cheeses, crackers, small cakes and biscuits were placed on the table. New wines followed and Blight sighed as a rather small glass bottle was placed in the centre of the table. Its amber liquid left trails on the glass as it sloshed around, Camellia smiled when another bottle full of a pink liquid was put on the table.  
"It is your last night before the tests, so I see no problem with a celebratory inebriant. Just a small one." Palatine was smiling at Alder like he had been granted a great gift. Alder ruined it  
"A what Palatine?"  
"A libation, a drink." Palatine sighed. Alder proceeded to fill his wine glass with the liquid from the amber bottle, it left maybe a single small glass. Blight chuckled  
"You're going to be blind drunk if you manage to finish all that."  
"Yeah like you'd know. We all know you hang out with that train wreck Haymitch, and that you drink plenty. It's really not your job to tell me how I should drink, when you set such a stunning example." Alder drained half his glass before anyone could say anything, Blight just shrugged and poured himself a small glass while Alder began to cough and hack as the alcohol burned his throat and stomach. Camellia poured herself a small glass of the pink liquid, it changed colour as it left the bottle, going from pink to a creamy blue. Johanna decided she would taste the funny pink one, she was pretty sure that the amber one was what Blight had handed her earlier. The pink drink tasted like peaches, and was creamy like milk, she watched as Camellia added another alcohol from the bar shelf to hers, its colour changing again.  
"What did you do?" Alder's eyes had begun to glaze, but he had noticed the vibrant orange her glass was now, it almost glowed.  
"It changes the flavour. Another time you can experiment, but now you need to get outfits sorted for the interviews tomorrow." She patiently explained expecting a fight, Alder just nodded, his eyes were already beginning to droop, and he was blinking when people were talking to him.  
"Ok, sounds like a good idea" his words were beginning to slur like Haymitch's did. The prep teams took this as their signal to gather them up and hurry them away to their bedrooms.

In her room Ausat shooed the prep team away, they whined about not getting to see the dress she would be wearing, while Ausat made sure they stayed away  
"You will have to wait until the interview day." Re-entering the room she showed Johana the three bags hanging on a rack in her bedroom.  
"You can choose anything from here, Blight told me you are going for innocent so I thought white, with a few accents, maybe in green or gold. I did bring one of the newer fashions for the tributes with me, but they are mostly modesty cloth, and you'll have to be glued into them so they don't slip."  
"Modesty cloth?" She gulped  
"Very revealing." Johanna nodded, she had a feeling there would be a few tributes wearing them, and she wanted to blend in, but not like that. Then Ausat was pulling the clothes out of bags and hanging them on the racks, the first thing she noticed was they were all very long, and all had cut outs. The final bag was Johanna's favourite, a long flowing dress with no back, the dress was white but the lining was a deep rich red. Ausat turned and smiled at her,  
"So which one?" Johanna pointed at the last dress. Carefully it was taken down from the rack, and Ausat help her dress. It was loose that was the first thing she noticed, she was having to hold it to her chest to stop it from falling to the floor. Secondly it was too long, she would have to wear the dreaded heels again to make it look right. Ausat began pinning it at her sides and back, when she could finally move her arms, she looked in the mirror. The dress fell a good four inches below her feet and pooled there, she hadn't realised that the materiel in the skirt what so delicate it was nearly see through. She could see the outline of her legs, the bodice had embroidery around her stomach and breasts, and the back was held together with clear straps. The red wasn't completely invisible, it caused the dress to look white or pink dependant on the amount of light that was hitting her. It was perfect.  
"You'll need an extra boost here again" Ausat was pointing at her breasts "and heels, it's far too long otherwise. We'll do something with your hair, and I love the fact that you're nearly as pale as the dress." Johanna was ecstatic, one dress she could spend the rest of the night sleeping.  
"Plumping creams, candidum treatment, hair, eyes, augmentation. Paint she needs paint, tattoo" Ausat was muttering to herself as she tapped on a tablet.  
"No tattoo's please, I don't want my mum and dad to recognise me." Ausat barely looked up and tapped something else on the screen. The dress was unpinned from her and the rack was re-packed into the bags. As the beetles re-entered the room to clear things away.  
"I like it when the tributes and I agree on all the treatments they should get." Her tone seemed slightly menacing but she smiled and wished her luck. Johanna pulled on a pair of pyjamas and climbed into the soft bed, tonight she thought that she would finally get some sleep. As she was just beginning to dose of she began to focus on Ausat's final words, it was a long time before she could finally drift off to sleep.

She woke up before Palatine had time to enter her room, she had slept fitfully, deciding to get dressed she pulled on her training clothes and exited the room heading for the kitchen. As she walked past the living room she could hear a voice that sounded vaguely familiar. She poked her head around the door to see Finnick dropping a drunken Blight on the couch, he was talking to Camellia.  
"He must have hit the wrong button again, he and Mags get along well"  
"I know Finnick, he loves that old woman, most of us do."  
"He kept mumbling about Bark, and a fire? Did he do something really bad this year?"  
"No there was a fire in district 7, Bark put it out. So they are letting him come to the capitol for these games."  
"Trail run huh?"  
"Yeah I guess so. Otherwise he would have arrived with us. I don't know, but I don't want to be looking after them both." Finnick nodded his head, and turned to leave the room, she slipped back behind the door, hoping they hadn't seen her. As he stepped through the door he smiled  
"Your good, didn't hear you at all." She smiled  
"Next time take another step back the shadows will hide you."  
"I wasn't trying to hide, I promise."  
"Yes well sneaky cat you maybe, hiding from us is probably not a good idea. Walk with me to the elevator" As they walked to the foyer she realised how young Finnick really was, he was barely a year older than her. He had been really young when he won his games, she just couldn't remember how old he was.  
"How old are you?" he was asking  
"17, no point hiding it, it'll come up in the stats tomorrow. You?"  
"18. Birthday in the spring. You?"  
"Yeah me too. But we don't celebrate birthdays, just when we can marry, when we age out of the reaping and living through being a toddler."  
"Really? I look forward to mine every year." Johanna was struck by how odd this conversation was, he hadn't talked about his looks once. She was talking about birthdays with the most handsome man in Panem, and he looked tired. It was like discussing what they could afford at the markets.  
"Why because everyone pays attention to you?" She couldn't help the barb, but the face on the television seemed so arrogant.  
"No, because they pay attention to my mother, she gave birth, and so she gets celebrated for producing a winner. It's one day a year I can guarantee no-one pays attention to me, it's nice." the elevator arrived and he stepped into it. He produced one of the smiles that melted the hearts of the capitol girls, but Johanna noticed the way it didn't quite reach his eyes.

She was sitting in front a plate of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and a mushrooms. A large glass of orange juice in her hand when Palatine pushed Alder into the room. He looked like thunder, the hangover making his usually sour mood worse than normal. He poured himself a coffee, piling sugar into the cup and adding milk. Both luxuries that neither of their families could have afforded at home. He nursed the cup and Camellia began to give instructions for the scoring process.  
"Put your best foot forward, show them what your good at. We need you to stand out, so we can get sponsors for you. If there is no money we can't send you anything during the games. High scores mean good sponsors."  
"I hope you can wear through that hangover Alder, we all know that Johanna here isn't exactly deadly so we are looking at you to provide the interest for 7 this year." Alder smiled.  
"Hopefully they'll see her shitty scores and then they'll switch out for me during the games."  
"You won't know that until you're in the arena, this is the last time you'll be with the other tributes without the whole of Panem watching." Camellia added, Alder's smile faded a little, it was dawning on both of them that this was the last safe day they had.

"After you display your skills, you'll enter the elevator and come back here. Boys first. So we will wait for Johanna to return before eating. The rest of the tributes should be done by about 3pm, the scores will go up around dinner time." Camellia looked at them, her eyes had the same sad look as Finnick's, Alder looked around the room  
"Where is Blight?"  
"Not here, he'll be back by the time you finish."  
Palatine interjected here, his voice was even more sweet than usual  
"District dinner time, we eat much later in the capitol, and you interviews will be on around 10pm, after the capitol has had time to get ready to party." Camellia glared at Palatine  
"That gives us five hours to perfect your interview based on you training scores. We will be heading down soon."  
Johanna finished her plate, Alder turned green and threw up when food was placed in front of him. She figured he'd eat from the buffet that was always provided in the training room. When the food had been cleared they all stood, the four of them headed towards the foyer, and the elevator. While waiting for it to arrive, a cold feeling settled in Johanna's stomach. By the time the elevator arrived she felt like the ride was the end of her, that once she stepped out at the bottom she wouldn't be the same person anymore. She took a deep breath and steeped into the elevator behind Alder.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN Sorry its been a while exams and all. Its longer and i really struggled to get this where it needed to go. Ah well its up now, and I can move on to far more interesting chapters. **

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Johanna was going to miss watching Alder transform in the elevator, she wished that like him a few moments of quiet could give her the calm he possessed by the time they reached the training room every morning. Even though he was hung-over and couldn't even look at food by the time they had reached the training room he looked like he was fresh from a good night's sleep. Even the bags under his eyes had faded. The guards stayed in the elevator as they stepped off into the nearly empty training room. Atala was standing in the much smaller space all the extra training spaces were now behind a large wall. It had a small door that had a black sign above it, right now it was counting down the minutes 00.45.54. Atala nodded at them but otherwise didn't acknowledge their presence, they were the first to arrive. Alder took a seat at the nearest table and glared at her when she tried to join him, sliding onto one of the benches a few tables down she waited patiently for the rest of the tributes to arrive. She didn't have to wait long, the 1 and 2 careers arrived shortly after they did 00.41.57, when each pair arrived they joined her at the table and were happily discussing strategy around her. She liked that she wasn't really part of the conversation, she could let their thoughts wash over her. Each of them was going to try some survival skill, and then show their talents with as many weapons as possible. It wasn't until Coral and Kai had joined the table that she noticed the elevator ping was absent here. Kai sat on her left  
"What talents are you going to show?" he was trying to be nice but every time one of the careers asked her a question she couldn't help but wonder if they were trying to get information to use against her in the arena, that's exactly what she was doing.  
"I guess I'll show them I can make fire, and not eat poison. After that I'm really no use" she added a sniff at the end for an extra effect. The pack laughed, mostly there wasn't any cruelty to it, but the boy from 2 looked at her a little too hard. The chatter continued as the clock above the door reach 00.09.06 the tributes from 3 arrived, the last ones. Alder had been right the boy did have a guard, they stayed in the elevator, and the pair quickly parted ways once they entered the room. Atala finally stepped forward.  
"Good Morning to you all, each of you will enter the assessment arena for your scoring process. The door above will count down to 20 once each tribute enters the room. That's 15 minutes for you to show your talents. 5 for the room to be put back in order. As I am sure your mentors have emphasised, these scores are what attract sponsors, so please show as much as you can. Those sponsors can mean the difference between life and death in the arena, so now is not the time to be trying anything new, stick to what you know, what you're good at. Boys will be first, girls you had that honour at the reaping and we will go in the order of your districts. As head trainer I will be adding my input to the game maker's process, so you will be alone in here. As usual the rule stands, no fighting with other tributes, enjoy your last day here. Finally I look forward to welcoming one of you back to the Capitol, however long these games may be there is only ever one winner. May the odds be ever in your favour people. Good luck." Atala turned and left the room, leaving the tributes alone to watch the clock countdown to zero. The time seemed to drag on forever, the seconds ticking by in slow motion. Finally a male voice called out  
"Male. District One" there was a buzz as the door swung open into the waiting space. Gleam stood and bowed comically to table, there was a round of laughter. His blond head disappeared into the dark room and the doors clicked shut behind him. As the door closed the timer began to count down from 20. The table began to talk again, strategies that Johanna didn't understand. Finally the voice called again  
"Female. District One" the door buzzed and open onto the black room, Shimmer stood, her white blond hair cascaded down her back.  
"See you at the interviews." Her walk into darkness was almost predatory. As the district 2 tributes began were called there was a pattern, conversation would slow at her table until a name was called, and then pick back up like there had never been an interruption. Johanna watched the boy from 3 enter through the doors his satisfied smirk gave her chills down her spine. As Kai was called Johanna decided it was time to start acting as pitiful as possible, and began to sniff softly into her hands, Coral tried her best to comfort her in her own strange way  
"We will make it quick I promise, I can even ask them to do it in your sleep so you won't even know it's happening. Here I'll get you a drink, you don't want to walk into the scoring process crying. Just push it down, think angry thoughts they'll show on your face." Coral walked over to the food cart grabbing a glass of something and a few pastries. Johanna folded her arms on buried her face in her elbow, she was smiling but she hoped Coral couldn't tell. She heard the girl sigh when she returned to the table, but before she could add anything the door buzzed.  
"Remember what I said Johanna." Coral had the same predatory walk that Shimmer had as she entered the dark room.

The space was strangely quiet without the careers making noise, the occasionally hushed whisper filtered through the silence like some lost moth, but mostly there was just a sense of impending doom. Almost everyone in there knew they had no chance, their districts didn't train them, the pair from 12 sat close together saying nothing. The two from 6 looked tiny in a room full of nearly adult teens, Johanna was relieved when they finally got called. It was nearly two hours before her name was called, Alder had entered with a whispered threat when "Male District Seven" had been called.  
"I'll show them Mason, then in the arena I'll show you. I'm going to make your death my final one. The district can't blame me for killing you then. I'll be a hero. I kept the crying girl alive, but then had to make the sacrifice to kill her. I can't wait. They will adore me." She smiled at his words, she finally knew how to make herself stand out in the arena. Finally the counter reached 00.00.00  
"Female District Seven"

She had stepped through the door into darkness. When it had clicked shut the lights came on blinding her for a second. In the balcony above she could see the game-makers, the only people she recognised were Atala the trainer, and Seneca Crane the head Game maker. She recognised his face from the television, he would often appear after each Games and would answer questions about the intricate pieces that made up the arena. Every year he promised  
"Next year's games will be more thrilling, more beautiful and more deadly than the next." She had always hoped he would end up in one of his beautiful games. 23 people died every year, she was never sure how he made it more deadly. They all had drinks in their hands and she was sure she could smell food, Seneca looked down at her  
"Begin."  
Her timer was already ticking so she went to the ropes first, making a bridge between two of the sections, it crumpled to pieces the second she put her weight on it. Landing on her ankle she made sure to let out an exaggerated whimper, and proceeded to hobble to the next station. At the fire station she spent a good five minutes setting up the right kind of kindling tower, making sure she had to knock it down and rebuild it more than once, muttering  
"No, not like that" every time, when she finally lit the tinder box it smoked profusely but never produced a flame. Giving up she moved on the heavy weights section, this she knew she could not fake, her district was known for its strength. She threw a few barrels around and tossed an axe at a dummy, it landed a few feet short skittering across the floor. Finally with only a few minutes left she walked to the poisonous fruit section and preceded to point out most of the deadly ones as edible making sure she got a few right. The room buzzed.  
"Stop." Seneca called and pointed to the elevator opposite the doors she entered. She walked slowly out of the room. That should do it she thought triumphantly, never anything more pitiful than a tribute that couldn't build a rope bridge, use a weapon and was going to poison herself at every turn. She just hoped they hadn't been watching to closely during the training sessions, or attributed her competence at the activities to trainer assistance. She even had a smile at the smoky fire, she hadn't meant for that to happen, the tinder had been wet and so it hadn't taken like she had suspected. Thank god none of the careers had seen what had gone on, Alder might have actually gotten his wish and they would have killed her on the first night. The elevator doors opened and Alder' sneering grin was waiting for her along with Camellia, Blight was leaning against the wall looking worse for wear, and Palatine was carrying the dog looking positively excited.  
"So how did you do? Alder here says he made a good impression." Palatine breathed at her.  
"Well, um, my fire wouldn't light. But I lifted a few barrels. I threw an axe but it missed. And my rope bridge fell apart when I tried to use it. I'm pretty sure I identified all the right poisonous foods." Camellia sighed and shrugged her shoulders, Blight smiled from the back of the room, no one could see his face but her. Palatine looked dejected  
"Well there is nothing to be done now, we will wait for the other tributes to finish while we dine on a beautiful lunch. The stylists and prep teams are already waiting for us. Johanna I'm told that your interview prep will have to be shorter than originally planned." Johanna nodded, she knew that this was Ausat's request. The five walked to the dining room where the stylists sat waiting.  
"Where are the prep teams?" Alder demanded. His stylist raised an eyebrow the shimmering tattoo darkening slightly.  
"Getting your out fits ready. After the scores have been processed you will practise any extras for your interviews, then head off to the styling rooms." Ausat's voice was chilly  
"Why are we not getting ready here?" his voice was still demanding but slightly less so more petulant now, boarding on peevish and sulky.  
"Tributes get ready under the stage. I don't like it when tributes argue Alder, sit eat." If her voice had been chilly before it was positively glacial now. Johanna remembered her statement from last night, it had left her tossing and turning. The food was piled high on the table the five took seats, it looked like Blight was going to have another liquid lunch until Camellia elbowed him in the sides. She dragged some roasted red meat, small red and white vegetables, and carrots in a sweet buttery sauce onto her plate. There was a thick brown sauce and a white one next to the platter with the meat on it. She poured them both on her plate. Conversation was subdued, the tributes were too busy eating to partake in any conversation. Johanna was well aware that her meals like this were going to disappear very soon, she had put on some extra weight but not much, the capitol food still made her sick sometimes. Finishing her first plate of food she spotted her favourite, the rich fatty bird with the crispy skin.  
"Its duck, they bake it in a certain way and it goes wonderfully crispy and succulent" Blight pointed at her plate. "If you get stuck during interviews talk about food." Johanna nodded, Camellia gave him a withering look.  
"Stop giving her extra help she's not worth the time." An angry hiss came from the other side of the table.  
"When will you learn that I am the one you should focus on? It's like trying to get blood out of a stone to get you to understand that she is going to die." Blight glared at the boy while Camellia sighed deeply, this was a regular dinner argument.  
"Thanks Blight I'll remember that." One more night she said to herself one more night of meek, weak Johanna then I can finally be me.

The rest of the meal had passed in relative silence, as per usual after Alder's outburst conversation had completely died out. He would groan whenever anyone addressed her and then sulk when he was spoken to. They were all in the living room now, Johanna and Alder had hot chocolates, all the others had their favourite alcohol in short, round glasses. Not the usual tall glass she had seen both the victors with. Palatine was trying to get Alder's costume out of the stylists who were sticking to the surprise rule. His voice getting less breathy as he got more aggravated with the pair. Camellia and Blight were sitting on the same couch heads bowed in conversation, which had left one couch for the tributes to share. Alder had wandered the room for a bit, but eventually had taken a seat on the other end of the two seat sofa. He was far too close for both his own ad her comfort, the guards had taken up post directly behind him. The television switched on and there was an announcement that the scoring process was about to begin.  
"Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you the scores of the tributes for this year's hunger games. It was a tough one to judge this year with so many promising candidates, these games are looking to be very promising in the excitement factor this year." Both she and Alder leaned forward. The room was stony quiet, everyone dared not to breathe. As was obligatory there was no commentary over the scores. Johanna had thought she was only interested in her own scores but she guessed not as the Shimmer and Gleam's faces appeared side by side on the screen. Her heart raced as their height, weight, names and ages appeared on the screen. The pause before the score seemed to last for an eternity. Both received a 9, there was muttering around the room.  
"That's low, careers usually get double digits." Someone muttered.  
"We'll see what the boy from 2 gets they usually score higher."  
Gallus and the young girl appeared on screen, Johanna finally learnt her name Iona. She was twelve just as she had guessed. Gallus received an 8, the little girl a 5. Wire boy also got an 8. Next were Kai and Coral, she was beginning to suspect that the other tributes had little survival skills, but the two from four would at least be able to fish. The copper locks of Kai appeared on screen and Coral lustrous red hair. Each received a 10. Blight nodded at her, he obviously thought the information Kai had given her was true this was going to be a starvation game. The rest of the tributes ticked by until their scores came up, none of the other districts truly making an impression. Alder's face and her own were on the screen. She knew where the photos were from, they were edited photos from the parade, and they had gotten rid of the head piece. Her skin was pale in the photo not the honey colour it had been before the treatment had lightened her skin. She held her breath.

Alder had a 6 and she had a 2. She could have almost yelled with elation, instead she had to bury her head in her knees before Alder saw the wide grin she couldn't remove from her face. Alder was seething on the couch next to her.  
"A six, a fucking six. I am worth so much more than that." The couch was shaking with his pent up rage. Both guards had taken a step closer, she nearly jumped when he started to laugh.  
"At least I didn't get a two. What did you do in there Mason, cry?" she had to bite back her response, tomorrow she thought to herself, tomorrow you have to show him. Instead she made the decision to run for her room she had really wanted to see the boy from 9's scores, but she could put on timid Johanna right now. If she remained in that room her cover would crack.

It felt like she soared into her bed from the doorway. She was elated when Blight entered the room a few seconds later, he must had followed her out.  
"I need to know the boy from 9's score" Blight nodded and headed back down the hall. He was back in a few minutes she was sitting on her bead grinning from ear to ear.  
"A 9, he has some survival skills then. The run out was a nice touch, I guess you couldn't keep a straight face?" he leaned on the wall opposite her.  
"Not really. The way he was gloating, it was making me smile. Alder knows me, I'm pretty sure he's even seen me throw a knife before, but even he is buying the act. If I can make him believe it the other tributes don't stand a chance" she beamed at him.  
"Good point. Now interview plans, do you have any? You haven't really needed much input at all during this process, so I'm guessing you already have a plan."  
"Yeah I told my family that I was going to use the interviews to say good-bye. If I don't do that mom will think something is wrong. I'll probably cry again. Unless that's gotten old? It has to me."  
"Not to the crowd, a few simple tears like at the reaping, not dramatic wailing, the younger tributes will probably have wet eyes anyway."  
"Wet eyes?"  
"No quite crying, when you're on the verge of tears it makes your eyes shine in the camera. Try and look stoic while on the stage and then 'give in' to the grief with Caesar. After the interviews you're going to be on stage for a while, the camera will pan your way every now and then so you'll need to keep it up." She nodded her head. Wet eyes she would have to remember that.  
"Ok so we ready to head back out and join them?"  
"You ready for Camellia? She'll have a few choice words of say in front of Alder."  
"Yeah let's go. " she bounced of the bed, he shook his head at her, Johanna was excited today was nearly over.

Alder started laughing as soon as she walked in the room. Camellia looked like she had swallowed a bug, Palatine looked dismayed, and the stylists oddly enough just sat waiting silently.  
"The great Johanna Mason, the lowest score in all the games. I bet mommy and daddy will be so proud of their little girl. You couldn't even beat out a 12 year old. All of them even the girl from 12 scored better than you and she can barely walk she's so starved. You are useless Mason." Alder was still chuckling to himself as she took her seat, she bowed her head and tried to look as despondent as possible. It was Camellia's time to play her part now.  
"Johanna you were supposed to show talents. The careers took you on because you had skills, not because you're a pack animal. They are going to rip you to shreds." She sniffed, there were no tears right now, and she needed to focus on building them for the stage.  
"And for god's sake, don't do that on stage. Bloody hell Johanna no-one needs to see you cry yet again, all you do is weep." Alder's face was the biggest grin, he stared at her, missing the quick wink that Camellia gave her at the end of her tirade. Johanna was on the best track to stay a nobody, and that was perfect. Alder had obviously been coached while her and Blight had been in her room. The stylist bustled them out the door. The elevator was cramped as they made their way to the floor, it was definitely not made for six people. The oppressive silence made the 30 second ride feel like it took hours.

Her skin burned under the lights of the stage, Ausat has insisted on another skin bleaching treatment, and now she was whiter than the dress she wore the lights making the pink come through all the more. Coral had glared at her backstage, Kai had smiled and waved. She knew that she would have to prove herself to the pack once again, that was if they didn't outright kill her in the arena. Alder had once again changed his character, he was positively charming smiling at the growing crowd and waving at the cameras he matched his clothing choice well. An open neck tight shirt clung to his body, displaying muscles she wasn't sure he had, his hair was slicked back and his face had some make-up hardening the lines of his jaw, the pants fell in straight lines to his black and red shoes. Tying the whole thing together was the sports jacket slung over his shoulder, it was black but the lining match hers, blood red. She played her part to, letting her stage fright overwhelm her, staring at the ground and only glancing at the crowd every now and then, the pale skin and white dress adding to the effect making her look like a ghost. There was a large crowd gathering in the stadium seating in front of the stage, she knew they were somewhere else in the city, but not entirely sure where the car journey had made her feel car sick yet again, the queasy stomach was making it so much easier for her to act uninterested. The rest of the tributes filed on to the stage there had been no time back stage to talk about her low score and defend herself, Coral glared at her. Obviously there had been some discussion about her low scores, hopefully there would be time to explain things after. Most of the tributes had been late to arrive, their stylist teams taking full advantage of the extra hours to make the tributes look memorable. Coral's hard stare actually improved her style for the interviews. She was wearing what looked like a metal breastplate the short skirt barely covering her as she perched in the chair. Kai looked completely different he was wearing an old fashioned tuxedo, the black jacket, pants and shoes matched the crisp white shirt perfectly. He had no tie and the shirts buttons were undone revealing his bronzed chest. Johanna thought maybe they had tanned his skin a little, he hadn't looked quite so brown in the training rooms. He far out stripped Alder in the dashing stakes, the crowd had picked their pretty boy for the games. As the stage filled she stopped looking at the tributes, all of them looked strong and healthy, while she looked sickly and weak. She was beginning to worry that her plan was working to well what if the tributes never gave her a chance. She knew from the past that they each would have picked their persona for the interviews, she was regretting her choice. The "Crying Girl" was never going to work. Maybe she should go out fighting, get up there and tell her plan to the world, then her parents would know she tried.

While she was worrying about her plan Cesar had introduced the tributes and finished his monologue, Shimmer was walking down the stage to couch under the spot light. Johanna noted with a little envy that she had no trouble walking in the towering heels. Her hair moved in a fluid sheet down her back. Other than that she wasn't wearing much at all, her clothing was entirely opaque, with a few modesty patches here and there. The cream cloth covered all her skin up to her neck but showed everything underneath, as she stepped into the spotlight it sparkled with golden stars. Johanna thought she looked like the lake when the sunlight hit it had been turned into cloth and was now wrapped around her form. She was so captivating that Johanna didn't really listen to the short interview, Shimmer matched her name. The girl from 1 was going for beauty to win her sponsors. Next came Gleam, he wore pants in a slightly thicker version of the same cloth, his bare feet made no sound as he walked towards Cesar, unlike Shimmer his pants didn't sparkle as they hit the light his darkened to a midnight black, blue stones shined out from one of the layers. He sat down with a predatory grin on his face. He wooed the crowd, talking about his high scores, that he had looked forward to this day since he turned 12, the honour he felt, and about when he won how he would move to the beautiful capitol. Johanna thought he had hit all the right notes the men in the crowd nodded their heads at each other and the women watched intently as he sauntered back to his seat, his pants shifting back to the opaque fabric as he stepped out of the spotlight. He was going for the predatory idolisation, he would win with skill and then become a permanent fixture in the city. Beside her Alder muttered about how he would have liked the same style, not this ancient throw back.

Already floating down the stage was the young girl from 2, Iona. As was the usual process they had dressed her as some fairy tale creature, floating green layers in a puffy skirt, and great trailing wings. Her face had been made up in some pixie like quality, childish but perfect for the young girl. Johanna looked down the line, the other young tributes were dressed in a similar fashion, the girls had wings or capes and flowery clothing, the boys wore far more clothing than their older male counter parts, Alder and Kai the only ones wearing anything above the waist in that age range. Iona talked about her family at home, she was one of six, her sisters, and her oldest brother who would have volunteered for her if he could. Johanna had to stop and focus hearing all these tributes stories of home was going to make her lose focus, forget that for her to go home, they had to die. Gallus appeared quickly on stage he was going for prodigy he talked about his parents, both victors for his district, his aunt and how he had volunteered because he had a better chance than the boy selected. He was going for strength, but also how he had insider knowledge. Johanna wondered how many of his family had also died in the games, not just those who had won. She turned her focus inward and ignored the rest of the interviews until her own, Kai would be beautiful and Coral strong, she didn't need to hear their interviews to know that. She felt the boy from 6 drop into his seat next to her, and she stood making her way to the stage, thankful that she didn't have to wear any heals under this dress. Now was the time for the Crying Girl to shine, well actually fizzle out and be forgotten.  
"Good Evening Johanna. How are you?" Cesar smiled at her, his colour for this year was yellow and it made him look sick up close  
"Scared, nervous." She stammered out, the crowd really was getting to her.  
"Well we will try and relieve a little of that for now. You look amazing, your stylist has really out done herself with this number."  
"Thank you, she really tried for me." She smiled at Ausat, who was sitting in the front row with the rest of the teams. The stylist nodded her head, just slightly.  
"How are you finding the capitol?"  
"It's so beautiful here, the lights at night make the whole city sparkle like a rare jewel. But the food makes me a little sick sometimes."  
"Even so I bet you have a favourite dish?" he was doing his best to turn her into something memorable  
"Yes the duck with sweet sauce. It's just so savoury and the fruity sauce makes it so delicious. It's just the spicy food I guess, I'm really not used to it." She let the hint of a smile cross her face  
"Well yes, we have all been on the wrong side of a curry every now and then" He turned to the crowd making a pained face  
"I feel your pain, I'm sure we all do." It got a few laughs from the crowd, but not many.  
"I think it's mostly because it's new to, I have never eaten anything like the food here in the capitol. It is wonderful most of the time" there were sounds of agreement from the crowd.  
"Before we go is there anything you would like to say?" he coaxed. Eyes, remember shining eyes, Johanna thought to herself, letting them fill with tears she looked straight into the nearest camera.  
"Good bye to my family. I'm not sure I will ever get to see them again. I love you all very much."  
"I know you didn't get to say good-bye to your sister after the reaping, anything to say to her in particular?" His voice was soothing as possible, this was how you made forgettable tribute memorable, remind the crowd that this family had more to offer.  
"Cami, I love you, look after Mama and Papa" words she had never called her parents, she let the tears flow now, ruining the make-up under her eyes "and the boys. I miss you all so much."  
"Well you know how you see them again" he leaned in and in a conspiratorial whisper "You win."  
"Believe me, I'm doing my best, but all of the others are just so strong." For a brief moment she let the true Johanna shine, the Crying Girl re-appeared to hide her. Her mother would pick it up, Blight might, and Cami they were the only people who needed to know the real her was still there.  
"And with that young lady our time her is up. Let's bring up you fellow district 7 tribute, Alder Pavi" the crowd applauded as she walked back to her seat. For her, or for Alder who was making his way to the stage she wasn't sure.

"And how does this evening find you?"  
"Eager, excited really I'm looking forward to tomorrow."  
"Any big plans for the arena?"  
"Yeah, I'm ganna protect Jo as much as I can, for as long as possible. She desperately needs a saviour." The camera was on her face she could feel the glassy lens, the thousand eyes behind it. She hid her face yet again not able to trust her face. She can hear the sighs of the crowd, the Crying Girl has a valiant protector, it was going to make killing him so much harder.  
"That's very noble" Cesar played the crowd  
"It's who I strive to be. Just because the capitol thrusts us into these barbaric games, this show does not make me any less human." The sighs were gone there was an almost icy silence from the crowd, shut up Alder, you're going to get us killed Johanna desperately wanted to scream at him.  
"Yes well, you must be enjoying the capitol." Cesar did his best to calm the crowd and change the subject  
"It's nothing like home. Everything here is just so…" don't say fake, please don't say fake Johanna was staring in horror at the chair "fake, the trees, the plants. Nothing here looks natural."  
"Ahem, well I guess home is what you are used to. But you must see the beauty in the differences?" if Cesar could have blushed Johanna was sure that he would have been a violent shade of red right now, she had never seen a tribute speak badly of the capitol before.  
"I can see why everyone here in the capitol finds it pretty. But no matter what way you spin it, it's not home."  
"Yes well as I told Johanna, the only way to get home is to win." She was sure his time had been cut short. As Alder sauntered back to his seat, she caught the self-satisfied smile, whatever he had wanted to accomplish he had managed it. She could see the other tributes warily glancing their way, Alder's show had made her the centre of attention by proxy, and every shot of him included her. The rest of the interviews passed in a blur the only thing that stood out every single following tribute was sure to exult how wonderful the capitol was.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: This is it for a wee bit. Exams are upon the lowly uni-students and thus i must direct my attention elsewhere. In saying that this is prime time for procrastination so I may surprise myself and actually write another chapter this week. Thank for the reviews i have received, its been really nice to read your feed back. **

She avoided Alder and the fallout from the interviews, she went straight to her room and went to sleep. Unfortunately it meant she was now awake in the small hours of the morning, and wandering around the 7th floor apartment. She had waved to the guard outside Alder's door on her way down the hall, his small head nod the only sign he had even seen her. She had been sitting on one of the couches in the living room, watching the capitol night out the large window, when the bell rang for the elevator. Blight, Camellia and Bark walked into the room, Bark stopping dead when he saw her.  
"What are you doing up?" he growled at her  
"Slept as much as I needed to, now I'm watching the capitol lights." He grumped at her, and went down the hall, she assumed to his room.  
"He's pleasant." She said to Camellia who had joined her, standing behind the couches.  
"He's tired, I don't think he expected to have to yell at a tribute the second he arrived. Not helped by the snow delays, the train rides are unusually lonely when there is no-one to share them with." Blight stumbled down the hall.  
"Why do they let him drink like that? I mean he barely functions."  
"It's about the only thing they don't control. I'd rather not ask why." They watched the lights for a while, Camellia standing behind the chair she had chosen, there were fireworks again, and a laser light show.  
"If you go on the roof you can actually hear them, it's like a thunderstorm." Camellia turned to leave, saying nothing more she walked down the hall to join the other mentors. Johanna decided to take her advice. At home she found thunderstorms with their fat, heavy drops and slow rumbles a comfort, even when it made work harder. The elevator ride was quick to the top, when she stepped out she was shocked to see the careers on the roof. Gallus and Gleam were taking turns leaning over the edge while the others laughed. The elevator doors shut behind her.  
"What the fuck happened, Crying Girl?" Coral shouted over the booms, they had been expecting her.  
"The wood was wet. My mentor told me to show some talent with at least one weapon, so I never got to show my skill at food identification." Kai dropped to the ground, rolling on his side with laughter, the others all sniggered away.  
"Wet wood, no fire. I wonder if that messed anyone else up." Kai stated finally recovering  
"Told you she wasn't useless it was just your need to show off that held her back." Kai was still chuckling to himself as he pointed at Coral.  
"What do you mean?" Johanna was curious, the wet wood had stymied her, but not as much as the group obviously thought.  
"I shot one of the sprinklers with a bow, I was bored." Coral shrugged. "The water would have drained by the time you entered the room, but I guess the wood and stuff was still damp."  
"Probably why there were well in their cups by the time I went through." Johanna said, it was barely audible over the loudest fireworks yet.  
"In their cups?" Gallus stared at her, he had heard what she said.  
"Drunk." For the first time she held the large boys gaze, waiting until he looked away, she was starting to show some grit, and she was pretty sure Gallus had already guessed her game. He was after all the one who had suggested the take easily readable Alder over her.  
"It didn't take long for Camellia to wake you, I guess Aunt Eno got the message across." Gallus continued to glower.  
"I was already awake watching the fireworks out the window, Camellia suggested I come up here. Better view." She smiled at him, the others watching the exchange.  
"Want to try flying?" Coral smile was almost sadistic. Johanna raised an eyebrow, what on earth could the little group of psychopaths mean by flying.  
"It's where you lean over the edge of the building." Coral stalked to the edge of the building, leaning out her arms wide as if to catch the wind. Shimmer was right next to her, Johanna quickly realised that this was her test, if the girl from 2 had been a volunteer and not a tribute she wouldn't even be here now. Far less gracefully she leaned out over the edge, spreading her arms out. Her eyes closed if she was going to fall to her death she really didn't want to see the ground coming up to meet her. She had barely leaned forward when she was thrown back by something. Groaning as she landed hard on her bottom. The group was laughing again, Gleam was standing over her with his hand held out. She let him help her up.  
"There's a force field, probably to stop anyone from jumping. You have to balance it just right, not so far as to trigger it but just far enough to feel the wind." Gallus had taken her place next to Coral, it was quite a sight the two long sheets of blonde and red hair, almost obscuring the large boy, their laughter was coming towards them on the wind.  
"I think I'll hang back, flying isn't really my thing. Besides how long have you guys been practising this?"  
"A while, Finnick apparently started the tradition. The academy building in four has one, and it just kind of spread. It's a good bye to the world." Kai at least looked sheepish. Coral leaned forward a little more allowing the force field to throw her back, she landed gracefully on her feet and one hand.  
"I really thought we would have to drag you up there. You're full of surprises." She sounded impressed  
"Heights aren't really a big deal, you have to climb the trees to trim the top branches as you fell them." Coral looked slightly less impressed, it was apparently more fun when she was scared.  
"Come on we'll do it again. A few more tries and you'll get the hang of it, look at Shimmer" Coral was pointing Shimmer, who was currently facing them. Her hair formed a whipping blanket around her, she looked like she was resting on the air. Shimmer waved at them, her face lit up. The two boys grabbed her hands pulling her towards the edge.

After a few dozen tries she finally knew the perfect position in which to hold herself, the force feild wasn't something you could feel until you touched it, but the tipping point where her body screamed she was too far forward was easily found. Just at that point Johanna learned to fly on the winds over the capitol, the fireworks completely forgotten. She understood why the careers practised this little ritual, the adrenaline rush made her feel like she could conquer anything. For the first time she also felt part of a group, but she quashed those feelings down somewhere deep, these people could never be her friends. This wasn't like when Elm had shown her how to jump from tree to tree, or when she played with her sister, these people would kill her if she gave them the chance. Once Johanna had mastered the trick the group played showing off with more and more daring stunts, before using the force field to get back to roof. They had explained that flying was just before the point of no return and was incredibly hard to pull out of, the easiest way back on the roof was to let the artificial barrier do it for you. She was nowhere near as nimble as the careers in her landing, but she managed to stay on her feet, just. The careers all headed for the elevator, while Johanna hung back, in no way did she ever want to be in a small metal box with all five of them.  
"You coming?" Coral spun to face her, she had become far friendlier after Johanna had participated in the flying stunt.  
"I've never been up here before. I thought I'd look around before I went back." Coral nodded and joined the rest of the careers in the waiting elevator, what she hadn't said was that there was no chance she was going to sleep if she didn't walk off some of the adrenaline rush, she felt almost drunk. There was a small garden on the roof, and she wandered towards them hoping the plants would make it feel a little more like home. The potted trees felt fake their growth stunted by the confined space their roots had to grow. The flowers were all artificially bright, and flowering in the wrong season. Johanna sat on one of the benches and stared at the sky, you couldn't see the stars here the city lights were too bright. As she was trying to relax she could hear the rustle of clothing in the roof space behind her.  
"I can hear you." She didn't open her eyes in case she was talking to no-one. There was no response, making sure she stood and began a slow circuit of the roof. The garden was a small space on the far side from the elevator it contained a bench seat surrounded by boxed flowers. Under the bench was the soft grass that surrounded the ponds in 7. She took her shoes off as she walked around the rooftop garden, it was good to feel something natural under her feet. She didn't mind the feel of the carpets in the apartment, they were all thick and soft, but to feel the grass the spikey blades the scent of it crushing under her feet reminded her of home. Feeling a little foolish she completed her circuit around the roof top. The city lights blazed around her, for all Alder's idiocy at the interviews he was right. This place wasn't home it was a cheap imitation. The fireworks she had come up to watch had long since finished. As she stepped onto the elevator she realised that the roof had to have a force field all around it, there had been no snow and it was only slightly cooler than inside the building. She had been preparing for a cold games but maybe she wouldn't be so unlucky. In the elevator she slipped on her shoes again and waited to descend to her floor. As she walked through the apartment to her room she appreciated how unwise it had been to spend so much time on the roof rather than sleeping, tomorrow could be her most trying day but inevitably it would be just the beginning. She wandered past the strange guard outside Alder's room she slid through her door. The bed looked so inviting as she wandered towards it sliding under the heavy covers she tried to sleep.

Hours passed as she stared at the ceiling worrying about the horrors the arena would hold, her anxious heart beating at a rapid pace. When the forest screen started to lighten she decided to get up, on her last day she didn't want to be assaulted by Palatine's garish colours. She wanted to remember the cool grass under her feet, and strangely the camaraderie she had felt with the other careers on the roof top. She surprised even herself at how close she had felt with the other tributes they seemed so fearless, something she was hoping to emulate. Unlike the people in her district they included her, and didn't blame her for her cousin's family. Granted they didn't experience the searches that every family in the district had because Elm got caught or the brutality that came with it, but they treated her like a person. She hated that one night had changed her perspective, in the training rooms they hadn't been people, they had been means to an end. As she put her training clothes back on she tried to forget the people she had met. Walking into the dining room she tried to feel lighter. She sat at the table already spread with their good-bye feast, not bothering to wait she began to load a plate with food. Today she was going to eat as often as she could starvation was not pleasant but a full belly would hamper her. She focused on the sweet breads and cakes, eating the fruits and drinking juice between them. She was on her second glass of juice when Palatine's dog rushed under her feet. The fat little dog waddled around under the table, she could her his snuffling as he searched for scraps. Palatine strode down the hall, he was wearing his usual tasteless, gaudy colour combination, this morning it was a combination of silver and orange, better than some mornings. The bouffant wig was bigger than normal, and as he walked towards her there was a faint tinkling of bells.  
"What are you doing up?"  
"I was hungry there really was no point in sleeping any longer. What time are we headed to the arena?"  
"Soon, enough time for me to wake you and to eat, there is some travel time this year." Palatine stared at her for a few moments before walking down the hall. "You have changed Johanna, are you feeling ok?"  
"For the first time since I entered this horrible race I feel like myself. See you after the games Palatine." The escort gave her a quizzical look.

Alder looked tired as he took his seat at the table Johanna couldn't help but smile, there was no room for the crying girl in her body anymore. The weeping child had been released on the roof in the howling winds. The mentors were siting round the table. Blight was nursing his customary drink, he had kept to his word and throughout training had limited his drinking, but today he was indulging. Camellia was pushing food around her plate, she had very little interest in food in the mornings. Bark's first breakfast with them would be their last as this group, he was making his way through a large plate of eggs and bacon. Her capitol family she thought, this quiet before the storm was comforting, the sound of knives on plates, even Alder's noisy chewing was a reminder of home. Her smile broadened.  
"What are you smiling about? Don't you get it? This is the last morning of your life Johanna." He was talking through a mouthful of food.  
"Not mine Alder, I'm going to do my best to be sitting in this same seat a few weeks from now."  
"Don't you get it Johanna, twenty-four go in and only one comes out. What odds state that it will be you?"  
"Long ones, I'll give you that." She looked into her plate and in a barely audible whisper added "but maybe that's the way I wanted it you little idiot." Alder scoffed at her whispers  
"It's better than the weeping I guess. But if you had any courage you'd say it loud enough for us to hear you."  
"I'd bet on me over you Alder." He gaped at her, then continued to stuff food in his mouth. She thought to herself as she ate, Alder you think you were the only one playing the game. You've been living in a fantasy if you thought anyone believed you. You are the only one caught up in this love affair you've concocted around yourself. Alder sweetie when you win this game you have to keep the public on your side, and the only way for you to do that is to keep your promise to protect the crying girl. You invited the viper into your bed and now I can't wait to strike. She had been so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't heard the prep team arrive. Ausat was talking to them now  
"…. the heli-vac from the roof will take you to the arena location, there you will all be dressed in the same outfits. Both your tokens were cleared by the game makers, so in the chambers we will pass them on." Ausat was gesturing with her hands, hurrying the tributes towards the elevator. The mentors followed behind, their small landing was incredibly crowded. The guards waited closest to the elevator doors their stoic silence letting them blend into the background. Bark was the first mentor to step forward, his gruff exterior didn't break at all.  
"Try not to die." He didn't move forward to shake their hands, or give a warm hug he said his piece and walked out of the room. Johanna thought it was fitting, he hadn't been there for the beginning and he wasn't going to be there for the end. Despite his decidedly cold goodbye she was glad to have another mentor in their corner, it meant that Blight and Camellia would get a chance to sleep while monitoring their games. Camellia followed her brother, she shook their hands before saying her good byes.  
"You won't be alone in the arena one of us will always be watching. He is right do you best not to die of some silly cause. Follow your plans, whatever they may be. When you pick something stick to it, don't half ass anything. Alder, listen to me just this once, watch what you say in the arena they may not show everything but they film every move you make. I mean everything." She walked away to join her brother. Johanna assumed that they would begin drinking, none of them could help her survive the blood bath. Blight enveloped her up in bear hug, he whispered in her ear  
"Do what you need to do, but remember to make the crowd love you." Looking at Alder, he shook his hand.  
"I'll do my best to help you both win. Alder play to your strengths, and Johanna discover a strength, any strength and use it. Good luck." He didn't leave the room but took up a now customary place leaning against the back wall. Palatine was the last of their little group to say anything.  
"Make it interesting. It's such an honour to be selected to play this game make sure you give it all you've got. Thank you for letting me be your escort. May the odds be in your favour, and try and win it would be great for my reputation here in the capitol. To have a victor is the ultimate reward for this job."  
Johanna wasn't going to suffer a hug from him and walked towards Ausat and the waiting elevator, for the first time the guards didn't board the metal box with them. Alder was no threat now, at least not to anybody that mattered. Once on the roof there was a ladder waiting for them to board the hover craft, one for each of them she noticed. Ausat told them to grip the ladder the game-makers would do the rest. As she felt the electric current through her she wanted to wave goodbye to the stylist's but nothing would move. Freezing her in place the flimsy metal and plastic construction raised into the hover craft, waiting for her at the top was a white coated woman.  
"This is your tracker, after I insert it I'm going to put you to sleep for the flight." She felt a sharp prick in her left triceps and then her world went fuzzy.

Her mouth felt like it was full of cotton and her head ached, she was lying on a soft pallet in a small concrete room, to her left was a round platform and to her right was a door. Directly in front of her was a toilet and a sink, she stood and stumbled her way over to the tap. Cupping her hands under the flow she started to drink, the lingering fuzziness fading with the cool, sweet water. The hissing of the door opening let her know that someone had joined her. Filling the cup next to the tap she turned to face whoever it was, water still dripping from her hands and chin. Ausat stood in the doorway with a garment bag.  
"What time is it?" she was surprised to see the stylist but wasn't going to let it show.  
"About midday, you're going into the arena in about 30 minutes." Lifting the bag she "this is your arena uniform, and I have your locket." Handing her the garment bag Ausat unzipped the front. Black was the first thing Johanna noticed, the entire uniform was black. Shoes followed the black clothes and there was another smaller bag with it. Taking of her capitol pyjamas she began to dress in the arena uniform. It was light soft material the pants hugging closely to her skin, there was a forest green shirt under the jacket, it too was made of a light material. Next was a sweater of sorts it was black with a hood that hung down over her face, it stayed open so the audience would get a view of the green she guessed. Finally was a jacket it was again a light weight material, it had the plastic sound of waterproofed cloth. The jacket came to mid-thigh and zippered closed just to the left of centre. There were soft leather boots these coming all the way to the bottom of her knees, at least they would keep her legs warm she thought. Ausat hung her locket around her neck before opening the small bag. In it was a pair of gloves these, like the shoes, were longer than she thought she would need. The gloves were made of a breathable material, but felt hardy, and came to her elbows. Lastly was a scarf, Johanna thought it was odd that her extremities had been dressed for cold weather with accessories but the actual clothing she wore was so lightweight, this was all for the show she thought. Playing with the layers she looked at Ausat quizzically.  
"Don't worry that material is hardier than it seems, and offers more warmth than you'd expect. I'm guessing from the gear that you're going to have a colder games but it shouldn't be too bad, there is still a fiasco in the city over the lack of killing when you lot froze to death. There are usually more colours than this, but don't be fooled the solid black wont hide you any better than solid green would. It will define your shape in the arena, so keep moving." Stepping forward the stylist began to play with the arrangement of her clothes. Eventually she moved on to her hair, its long black ringlet waves pulled into a tight ponytail.  
"You didn't hear it from me, but your hair will become unmanageable within a few days, personally I'd just cut it off. It'll make taking care of yourself easier. It may sound stupid now, but depending on the games length don't forget to wash every now and then. Infection will set in quickly if you let dirt hang around on the skin. Besides its much nicer to take care of a clean body, rather than one that reeks of infection and dirt. The blood is so much easier to wash away if it has nothing to cling to." It won't be a long games if I have my way Johanna though to herself. I want to be home as quickly as possible. It was slightly disheartening to hear her stylist talk about her like she was already dead but at least the crying girl was till in play, if Ausat believed it then so would the rest of the capitol. There was a buzz over the intercom.  
"That's your cue, stand on the platform. It was nice to have met you Johanna." No good luck, just a formal good bye, sometimes she hated the cold harshness of her stylist. As the glass tube descended around the platform she clasped her mother's locket in her hand. She knew inside it there would be to pictures drawn by her mother's friend. One of her mother and Cami smiling in the sunlight, and one of her father and the twins, her father grinning proudly at the babies in his arms. She thought of them as the platform began to rise. She was going to do whatever she had to, to get home to her family. No matter what.


	10. Chapter 10- Bloodbath

**I named it so you can skip to it. Please let me know what you think. **

The sunlight was blinding as her platform entered the arena, the cornucopia's golden abundance glinted in the light with tributes fanned out in front of it, all 24 on the same side for a change. To their backs was open ocean, she could swim but she wasn't going to risk entering the water. Behind the cornucopia was a dense forest, it rose sharply from the beach they were standing before, the green grass stopping sharply at the tree line, a tree line which extended into the sky. Sea and mountain ranges, at least food wouldn't be hard to come by if you knew how to find it. The sea so it wasn't going to be hard for at least one group of careers, Kai and Coral would have no trouble finding food there. Already she knew water was going to be hard to come by. From what she could tell the trees were mostly the evergreens from home, but that wasn't saying much. Turning her head back to the bounty ahead of her she studied the layout. The bags of goodies were on the opposite side of the cornucopia to the tributes. She couldn't see any of the customary pile of weapons glinting in the mouth of the horn, and there seemed to be more bags than usual. She noticed the majority of the bags were clustered close to the horn itself, with the bags getting smaller the further away. The tributes were in set out on their side with the weakest districts on the outer edges, the careers in the middle. This gave the weaker tributes a chance to reach the outer bags and the trees behind the cornucopia without interacting with the careers. Looking down the line she saw Alder was in the same position as her, closer to the middle her low scores didn't count for much. The giant clock was nearing the end of its count down, eyeing up a green camouflaged backpack just on the other side of the cornucopia, it was in a direct line with her and the trees. She knew she was quick off her feet, and the lack of weapons might give her time.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… a horn sounded, and before she could think she was off, her feet moving for her. Dipping she grabbed the backpack she had spotted and headed for the nearest tree that would be easy to climb. She wanted a vantage point for the bloodbath. As she veered her course for the nearest pine she nearly tripped over another bag, using her stumble she grabbed that one to, strapping it to her front. As she gathered her feet to run she heard the first sickening scream, the careers had found the weapons hidden in the bags. Vaulting up into the tree she used the pines natural spiral to run quickly round its trunk gaining height. Picking her vantage point she watched the bloodbath ensue. She was to thirds of the way up the tree and probably easily visible from the meadow they had started in, but she wasn't concerned. The careers wouldn't be hunting her, and she could see that the rest of the tributes were already making their way deeper into the forest. The scream had come from the young girl from 2, there was a knife buried in her back the starved boy from 12 was still grasping the handle when Gallus twisted his neck and broke it. The girl from 12 had been making her way towards the trees when her district partner's neck was snapped, running back she tried to strangle Gallus with her satchel. Wrapping the strap around his neck she was digging her feet into his shoulders to pull it tight. Coral was the first career to find a weapon, a machete, she sliced down the 12 girls back releasing Gallus, as he gasp and regained his breath Coral moved on. Her spine exposed to the air the girl from 12 began to scream, it carried crystal clear to Johanna, Gallus performed the same neck breaking manoeuvre on her that he had on her district partner. Johanna watched as even more of the lower districts braved the bloodbath this year. The girl from 10 was also dispatched by Coral, the arterial spray hardly showing on the black coat. Coral red hair had gained some darker streaks from the weaker tributes blood. The district 10 boy was making his way into the trees on the far side from Johanna, carrying two backpacks he had avoided the careers path. Shimmer's blond hair was streaked red in her hands were two small knives, she had chased the pair from 11 down the tree line, they had stupidly stopped to exchange packs before entering the cover.

Johanna hadn't seen Shimmer run them down but she had heard the terrified scream of the girl, she had been watching them pause at the tree line when the 12 girl had turned back. The boy was clutching his neck blood gushing between his fingers onto the grass, Shimmer had one of the small knives buried in the girls eye and was struggling to free it. The way her body shook as Shimmer held her neck and yanked at the knife, Johanna knew that the blade had gone deep enough to kill. When the blade finally came free the girls eye was still attached, Shimmer flicked it off, laughing as it landed in the grass. The girl twitched in her death throws. Johanna searched the field for the three boys she wanted to keep an eye on, Alder, the evil eyed boy from 9 and the boy from 3 hadn't braved the bloodbath choosing instead to make their escape. To where she wasn't sure. The young kids from 6 hadn't moved from their platforms and she watched as Gleam and Kai quickly dispatched them, the girl had her neck broken, screaming in terror as she watched her partner's head being hewn off by Gleam. The bloodbath was finally over, Shimmer was walking back to the rest of the pack, leaving the boy from 11 gurgling in the grass. They began to move the packs away from the bodies, onto the beach behind the platforms they had started on. She could hear their jokes, about the deaths of the other tributes as they shuffled their gear.  
"Don't worry, that one over there is still gurgling away." Shimmer laughed clutching her neck leaving a red smear  
"We have plenty of time to move this stuff away." Coral threw bags at the boys and they moved it down to the beach front behind the platforms. The careers were in the process of sorting the bags into piles when the canons started. Eight in total a third of the field was gone.

As the hovering platforms arrived to collect the dead she went through the two packs she had managed to grab in her escape, she knew now why Kai had told her to get away from the bloodbath. The pack was frenzied and wouldn't have stopped to notice she was their ally before killing her. None of the pack had stood back, they had all done their duty and dispatched the other tributes when needed. She sighed and began to search through the bags. In the first bag she had picked up there was food, for a starvation game there was a lot of food. 2 fresh apples, one she decided to eat while she looked, 2 packets of dried meat, 2 small boxes of crackers, about 10 crackers in total, and a bottle with water. There was also an empty bottle, a camouflaged tarp, which nicely matched the tree she was in, some rope and three trap wires. Thin and sharp they could be used to garrotte a human. A hand saw, a small spade and a plastic tube that when you clicked the button on the top flames appeared. Deciding to start a contingency plan in case the careers came after her. She put all the dried food onto the tarp along with the rope handsaw and spade. The full bottle of water was halved the larger portion going into the tarp, she hoped the seal was tight enough to stop it evaporating. In the smaller bag was more crackers and some dried fruit strips, these both went into the tarp. There was also an empty bottle, another trap wire this one thicker, a small knife where the blade collapsed into the handle, and three beautifully crafted blades. She balanced one on her hand, they were throwing knives beautifully balanced a solid piece of single steel. She smiled, her fall had been lucky in this bag there was the perfect tool for her. She folded the tarp with her dried food and water ration, making sure that water wouldn't enter the package, slithering down the tree she tied it to the topside of a branch not far from the ground. Doing a quick walk around to make sure it wasn't visible to anyone else. She climbed back up to her perch and began to repack her bags, opting for the smaller one she folded down the large camouflaged one and packed it into the very bottom. Placing the rest in as she thought they would be needed. The trap wires she wrapped around her waist under the jumper which she then zipped up, she had a plan for those wires and she didn't want the pack to know she had them. The final thing she placed in the bag was the food and water, she would spend the afternoon out on her own, joining the pack at dusk. She wanted to know where Alder had gone. The throwing knives attached to a belt that she slipped around her waist, hoping that Alder was sticking to his interview boast she climbed out of the tree to go hunting. She carefully dropped to the ground, she wanted to attract Alder not the other two that had teamed up. Scouting the area she kept an ear out for any water, none of the clear blue was drinkable. As she crunched through the undergrowth she couldn't help but notice how loud everything seemed, there was no ambient noise to cover the sound of her footsteps, as she rounded a rocky outcrop she heard crashing ahead of her. The undergrowth was dense in some areas, unpassable without the machete Coral was carrying. In others it was light due to the heavy cover from the tall evergreens. She had been rounding one of the thicker areas thinking it might have hidden a stream. Someone was moving in the same area. Crouching low she hid in the leaves of a low growing bush, her pack catching as she tried to wiggle further into the undergrowth.

"Where the fuck is she, I know she entered this bloody forest this way. God I hope none of those cannons were for her." It was Alder, she was right he was sticking to his interview promises. He had on a bright yellow pack and was holding a small axe. He obviously wasn't worried about any of the weaker tributes challenging him. The pack wouldn't hunt till after dark, they never did. Besides she smiled to herself they were waiting for their last member to arrive. He had stuffed the jacket into the pack and was sweating through the green shirt, his gloves were also off. Scrambling out of the bush she ran into his arms knocking them both to the ground.  
"I'm so glad you came to find me, I was so scared. This place is so creepy, and so many of those poor people died in the beginning. Did you hear the cannons?" She was talking at break neck speed, seem scared you're grateful he found you she was telling herself. Under her Alder groaned.  
"Jeez Mason your heavy, get off. I said I'd protect you, but you ran off before I could follow." He had listened to Camellia and was sticking to the script, now all she had to do was dispatch him and get to the beach. She stood up sticking out her still gloved hand to help him up, as soon as he touched her skin she knew something was up. His hand was like fire, even though the gloves she could feel the heat. Choosing to say nothing she pulled him to his feet.  
"Jo, let's find a place to make camp for the night. Seen anywhere secluded on your travels." She thought for a moment and decided to lead him back to the tree by the clearing, a small fire to cook there wouldn't be seen before dark. She wasn't planning on spending the night. She nodded her head and began to retrace her steps. They didn't do any talking on the trek back to the meadow. She could hear his stomping footsteps following behind, there was nothing quiet about the way he moved. Reaching her original tree they back tracked for a little while reaching a big willow. At first she was excited willows traditionally meant water, but as she got closer there was nothing, the long braches hung over an empty stream bed. The canopy would hopefully break up any smoke from their fire, and would hide the light and noise. She settled in dumping her pack on the ground. Alder dropped to the ground using his pack as a backing to lean against.  
"I'm shit at the whole fire thing, can you light one." He turned and started to empty his pack, dumping a few pieces of large wood next to him. She began to scout out some useful materials, they would only need a small one to cook some food.

When she returned alder had made a neat pile of twigs and sticks emulating the fire starts they had seen in training. Kneeling next to it she thought for a second wondering if she should dig the lighter out of her pack. It would make the fire easier to start, and she didn't know what kind of food Alder was carrying, she didn't want to waste any energy rubbing sticks together to make an ember.  
"Hold up I have a fire starter pack. Here." Alder lobbed a small red box at her, inside was a few matches, some cloth and a small bottle of fluid. Sliding the bottle out she read the label, it was lighter fluid 'A few small drops on the cloth and a fire would start with the flick of a match' the label exclaimed. She may as well give it a try. Her small fire quickly sprung to life, looking through the canopy above she assumed it was close to evening the light was starting to fade, looking for Alder and finding the firewood had taken longer than she thought. From what Blight had told her she would need to make her big reveal as public as possible, the more people in the capitol that saw her change the better. Palatine had spent a lot of time whinging about how the districts insisted on eating too early while they were training. She had decided that the best time to kill Alder would be around dinner time in the capitol about 8 pm. If she had her timeline right the sun would set around five, the kill announcements would come about 45 minutes later when true dark had set in. Sometime after that she would need to make her move, the light from the fire needed to be big then so that every detail would be caught on camera. Hopefully alder had a torch in his pack to add to the light. Using the fading light as an excuse she decided to ask.  
"Did you get any torches in your bag, it's going to get dark soon. I was thinking we could divide up what we had and share for a bit." Alder's face darkened and then he nodded, obviously sharing was not what he wanted to do but he needed to keep character.  
"Yeah I got this but I'm not sure how to work it." It was an electric lantern, she had seen them hung around the peacekeepers quarters in her district. You could slide the lantern part back into the case ad it became a pretty bright spotlight. In emergency searches the peacekeepers would take them off the walls and use them like torches. She reached over and took if from his hands, they were still burning she could feel the residual heat on the yellow plastic casing. Looking above him into the canopy  
"I think we should hang it up there it will light a better area anyway, we don't want it to light the whole tree just straight down." Alder hadn't moved since he had sat down so she stood above him and hung the light, switching it on to light the space next to his head. Grabbing her pack she sat on the opposite side of the light and began emptying her pack into the pool of light. The tree's large canopy was making the darkness arrive even faster. Alder started to do the same. His bright yellow pack quickly emptying.  
"So what happened to you after the Bloodbath, I didn't see where you went." He was doing a very good job of looking sincere  
"I picked a pack and ran for it, then I ran for the nearest tree. I tripped and though I was a goner for sure, but I did spot any weapons so I guess the pack took extra time finding them. I grabbed the pack I tripped over and then ran up a pine, and just waited. When I couldn't hear them killing anyone anymore I looked at the meadow. Oh Alder, there was so much blood" she began to weep now, letting the sobs take over. She knew if this was being broadcasted that the audience at home would know she was lying. It wouldn't have gone un-noticed that the crying girl had watched 8 people die a gruesome death and not shed a tear for any of them.  
"I thought as much, I didn't think you would have gone far. Up a tree like a scared little animal" the viciousness from their dinner time conversations was back.  
"Where did you go?" she choked out. The tears had been fake but where having very real effects on her ability to speak.  
"It was so odd, as I was running from the cornucopia that boy from 3 waved me down. I trained with Gleam and them and I wasn't going to take them on in the arena, I saw how strong they were. I grabbed this pack and just ran for him. I didn't see any weapons either, so I figured that the kid didn't have any. We were pretty far into the forest by the time that girl screamed. He's quick, faster than I would have guessed. Anyway we keep running for a bit and then he finds this rock and just stops. No reason at all was so weird. He starts digging through these tiny packs he's grabbed and I kind of just sit there. Finally he asks me if I got any trap wire, so I begin to look. Nothing. I think Blight was wrong about the food thing, we had a ton of food between the two of us. Heaps of it fresh. So I'm repacking my bag and he chucks that at me" Alder pointed at a small foil packet. "Said it was rations of some kind and that I should eat it because he knows they taste like crap." Johanna picked up the packet of freeze dried food. The label said to add a little water, so she opened it up and poured a small amount in from her bottle. Putting it near the fire she turned back to Alder.  
"We may as well eat it." She shrugged and nodded at him to finish his story.  
"So we are eating some of the fruit and stuff that came in the bags, and he begins whistling this real bizarre noise, just every now and then. He will just be talking away and then beep, beep, then just keeps talking like nothing happened. Anyway I found out his name was Piaskal, only child, whatever. Finally that other kid shows up, you know the odd one he was hanging out with in training, and Piaskal runs, and I mean runs up to this kid and gives him the biggest hug I've ever seen a guy give another dude. For all his waiting and excitement the other kid just shoves him off and points ant me saying who the fuck is he, why is he here. All this stuff. Piaskal starts on about how he figured I could help them find that weak girl and stuff. Anyway we have this big talk about tactics, stuff you wouldn't get." Johanna was intrigued and slightly infuriated by the suggestion that she wouldn't be able to interpret this boy stuff.  
"I tell them I'll go find you and bring you back to camp. Then they handed me my bag and off I went."  
"Where are they camped? I want to avoid them." Johanna was far more curious about what they had planned for her back at camp, all male teams never seemed to get much airtime in the Games but they did plenty of group killing. Alder gestured to the east, but said nothing. She grabbed the warm foil packet from next to the fire. With no utensils she looks at Alder  
"Mind if I eat first, you said you at pretty well with Piaskal and that other one" She didn't want to use her name for him.  
"Go ahead, just save me a little bit. It was supposed to be some kind of meat dish." She divided the foil packet with her hand, giving herself slightly less than half, still playing the weakling. While she scooped some of the foul brown mush into her mouth she looked over their accumulated gear. There was none of the fresh food he had mentioned, just some more jerky. Other than the fire starter kit and the hand axe there was only a thick blanket. His pack was medium sized, the blanket had taken up much of the space. It was starting to get dark under the canopy and she was already feeling the bite of the cold. Alder was still sweating, she guessed they hadn't wanted him to win after his comments on stage at the interviews so he was ill with some kind of sickness. Maybe killing him was going to be a mercy, not that any of the viewers were going to get a chance to see that. He was still coherent, and other than a light flush to the cheeks and a little sweat he looked healthy.

While she was finishing her share of the food she suddenly realised what had caused the background feeling of uneasiness she had during the day. Handing the packet to Alder  
"Have you heard any birds today?"  
"No. Why?" the boy shrugged scooping the brown sludge into his mouth.  
"It's just at home, these lights are always surrounded by bugs, and the fire would usually attract a few pests. There were no birds singing as it started to get darker. Did you see any water?"  
"No I didn't bother to look, everything around here is damp, the grass, the trees. It was muddy to while I was looking for you." He flashed his boots, they were caked in mud.  
"Do you remember where the mud was? Because other than the sea water I haven't seen any. Even this stream bed is dry."  
"Close to Piaskal's camp. There was this swampy stuff."  
"Where Alder it might be the only water nearby. It might be the only water in the whole arena."  
"Umm north of where I found you, I was following that brush you ere hiding in. Maybe a mile, I didn't really feel like far." Johanna was trying to adjust for a fever in walking distance, her bearings were good she knew that they were almost parallel to where she had found him, and that she could walk there in under an hour. She now had a plan for the night find out where those two were hiding, before joining the pack. They had begun repacking their stuff, she had given Alder the larger green pack both deciding the yellow on was too bright. Being chivalrous he had told her to take the blanket, he would just stay by the fire. They decided to burn the yellow pack. As soon as it went in the flames she knew it was a bad idea, the bag gave of a thick black smoke that quickly filled their hideaway, before long they were both coughing away, the sweet sooty smoke burning their lungs. Deciding to run Alder stood and grabbed the torch and his pack, Johanna followed suit. They ran for a few minutes to get away from the tree, it was still light out. The canopy had made it seem later. They began to move east, towards the spot they had found each other. She was carrying the blanket and he was struggling to turn the torch off when they came across another pine tree, it was just on the other side of the stream bed. Looking at Alder she pointed up. Using the same technique as by the bloodbath she began to scale the tree. Reaching some branches just above the canopy, they searched for the smoke riddled willow. It wasn't hard to spot the oily black cloud was slowly being released from where it had been trapped.

"Well shall we spend the night here? They're going to be looking on the ground for whoever set the fire." She nodded in response to Alder's question, the willow was on the opposite side to the dry river, and she could see the surrounding land was brush free. A willow in a field with a gently flowing stream, how picturesque. If the stream had been there, and there was bird song. The sun was even setting as she gazed on the scene. It made the trees look like they had been set ablaze, the grass rippled in the wind. She really hoped bark wasn't on watch for this particular moment. They settled in for the night Alder cutting a few of the branches to make a platform for them to sleep on. They busied themselves packing the square with as many branches as possible. She used the flick blade to remove the smaller branches before settling them between the two largest ones. The small branches were saved and layered on top to cover the hard lumpy surface. As the sun began to set Alder hung the torch in the canopy above.  
"Don't light it yet, no one has checked the willow, and it's getting dark."  
Leaving it in the tree they worked in silence building up the platform. Their scarfs were donated to hold the lower branches stable. Eventually it was wide enough for them to sit side by side against the trunk. Johanna threw the blanket over both of them. Alder my not have been feeling the cold but she was. She was going to use that heat to stay warm while she could. The sat in silence and watched the willow. Nobody came to investigate, she thought that maybe the tributes wouldn't be doing anymore killing today.

Finally when the sky went dark the death toll flashed, no information, just their pictures projected onto a screen above the arena. She didn't need to watch as the faces flashed marking who was gone, she had watched them die. She watched the sky diligently anyway there hadn't been anymore cannons but she wanted to make sure that she had the right death toll in her head. They were the same pictures that were used for the training scores she noted sadly. If she did happen to die in here they wouldn't even show the real her, but the capitol bastardised version. She felt for sure that the highest number of viewers would be now, catching up on who died on the first day. Alder grumbled beside her, he wasn't really talking to her but muttering to himself.  
"Mason your so damn warm."  
" I can't see a thing its so dark now, we should put on that light."  
"You know I think I'm hungry again." This one she had to respond to  
"Alder once that food is gone that's it. There will be no more food, we walked a good 5 miles today and I didn't see a single fruit tree or bush. There are no animals, we have our rations and that's it."  
"The games aren't going to last that long. Piaskal and his friend want to hunt out the girl tributes, and the pack will get what they don't miss. We'll just wait it out up here. They kill each other in a few days and then we'll….. Well…. We will do what needs to be done." She wondered if he was trying to play his character, the knight in shining armour, or if he was struggling with the concept of killing her. Either way he wasn't going to get to find out. The capitol anthem blared and they stared at the empty sky for a few moments.  
"I'll take first watch. Get some sleep."

She got out from under the blanket and climbed a branch higher into the tree, sitting above him she watched for any signs of life. It was getting cold enough now that she was considering re-joining alder under the blanket in the warmth when to pricks of light flashed behind the willow tree. She couldn't hear their conversation on the wind, just snippets of a yelled argument.  
"…Tree….. Positive"  
"I'm sure... Bag burnt…"  
The pair took a good long time to search under the willow the lights from their torches obscured by the thick branches. Just as she thought the may have left they remerged their argument continuing as they resurfaced from under its leaves closer to the stream.  
"The pack didn't want him…."  
"She is smarter than she looks…." One of them was on to her. As the torches moved away from the willow and started heading east again she decided now was her moment. She watched to see if they followed the stream, she had a hunch that the swampy bit Alder had walked through was probably the lake the stream fed from. She imagined the capitol vultures watching their screens, waiting for the crying girl to burst into tears yet again. Not tonight, she was going to show them she could win.

Climbing down from her branch she slithered onto the platform, she focused on not rocking the rickety branch construction. For a person in a killing game Alder had fallen asleep very quickly, he was snoring softly into his chest. She turned on the lamp, and waited for Alder to stir, but he continued to snore. She took one of the throwing knives from her belt, at this distance it wouldn't kill him, holding it in her hand she knew at any distance these knives were to light to kill a human. She thought about stabbing him in the eye but she knew her knife wasn't long enough to reach his brain. Resisting the urge to retch as the image of Shimmer flicking that eyeball into the grass flashed before her eyes. She didn't want him to have time to react, he was stronger than her and could easily kill her by pushing her out of the tree. She also didn't want to be covered in blood when she reached the careers, her plan wouldn't work if they thought she was capable of killing anyone. Lifting the blanket she held it in her teeth covering her clothes, she had enough water to wash her face just. With her right hand she wrapped her fingers in his hair gently pulling his head back exposing his neck. She could smell the sickly sweet sweat of a dying person emanating off Alder. She could see that the blood vessels under his eyes had started to burst, I'm doing him a favour she thought to herself. Any disease the capitol would have given him wouldn't have been pleasant. Waiting to see if she had woken him, she finally used her left hand to slit his throat. Blood gushed into the blanket she was holding in her teeth, she resisted the urge to spit it out. She felt a few spatters on her forehead that weren't caught in her makeshift shield. As the blanket filled with blood she could feel its weight increasing on her teeth. She dropped his head so that the blood would continue to pour onto his chest rather than straight at hers. His eyes were wide with terror, the brown colour almost black with fear. She would never forget the look on his face, but she needed to maintain her public persona. Her life depended on her being memorable.  
"I warned you not to underestimate me. I never needed your help Alder." What the audience would never know was that she had waited until the light had left his eyes, she could never be as callous as to taunt a dying man. As she finished talking his cannon went off, Alder her only link to home was dead. She had made sure to cut both the arteries' in his neck, the cut was so deep when she moved him to get his axe and pack it fell open like a gaping mouth. The bones of his spine gleaming white in the artificial light from the lamp. Reaching up she turned off the light, she didn't want to see the damage she had wrought to his body. She left his body wrapped in the bloody blanket and chose to take his pack and axe with her. Gathering her things she climbed down the tree, the hovercraft appearing when she reached the ground. She couldn't see it, but knew from watching the bodies being collected after the bloodbath that a large metal claw was lifting his body away. Back tracking to the willow she began to follow the stream, zipping her jacket against the cold.


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry exams are over so I should be updating far more frequently in the upcoming days. biglebowski and charlie947 i secretly hope you guys are still reading. And my mystery reviewer I hope i havent taken to long to update. **

Once she had made it to the willow she ducked in under its leaves again, their small fire pit was still smouldering in the dark undergrowth. Her torch was useful and checking out the damage, the fire had scorched the branches above and in its embers was a thick black sludge. Picking up a stick from their pile of firewood, she poked at the bubbling mass. It was the burnt bag its burnt plastic sticking to her poking utensil. Deciding to test if her gloves were fireproof she held her hands over the coals, the burning sensation let her know the gloves were definitely not heat-proof. She shook her head at her own stupidity if she was able to feel the heat coming off Alder then the gloves weren't heat proof. Scouting the area for anything they may have left behind, she found Alder's gloves. Sitting next to them she stared off into the distance. Part of her wanted the careers to find her, sitting here unarmed and vulnerable. She wasn't sure how she was going to deal with the guilt of taking someone's life, she could feel the waves of nausea and melancholy washing over her. Mostly she felt ashamed, she hoped that her family would understand but she knew the rest of her district wouldn't, she had abused Alder's chivalrous nature. They all knew what he was really like, a bully and a menace who terrorised the smaller children and weaker adults, but she had seen it before. The kids who died in the games would be remembered as solitary heroes, saints who sacrificed themselves. Their bad deeds, cruel natures and horrible personalities forgotten in the anti-climactic burials of the lost children. She assumed that every district had a grave-yard like 7's, filled with teenagers who died in brutal ways. She would walk through it occasionally, but it was so depressing. A name, an age, a gender, and finally their tribute year. Even in death they were nothing more than sacrifices, the worst part was that they were forced to serve even in death. Her districts tradition of cremating the dead and scattering the ashes in the forest forgotten in the need to preserve the glory of the "Great Hunger Games." She knew exactly how Alder's funeral would play out, he would be kept in cold storage until the games were over. Then when she travelled back to her district he would be on the same train, his body kept in a special black carriage. While she would receive the fanfare worthy of a victor his body would be quietly unloaded and taken to his parents' home. If they both died there would be a slow procession through the streets, finishing at the graveyard, the whole district out to bury them and celebrate their lives one last time. It was 7 tradition that the lost children weren't talked about after their burial day so the whole community would celebrate remembering them, sharing stories, and sometimes recounting great feats of bravery in the arena. Instead Alder's family's grief would be ignored. She would be given a feast and her family would move into her new home in the Victor's Village. For the night his family would share their home with their fallen son's dead body, dressed in fine capitol fashions, which could have been sold and fed them for a year. Instead that wealth would be entombed in dirt. Then quietly the next morning he would be buried in the cold ground, if she hadn't killed him she probably would be invited. Instead of the great fire and his body going back into the cycle of the forest his grave would be kept clear of growth with salt, and the bare ground would remain until his family was no longer there to keep the weeds from growing over the grave. That was the worst part, in a bid to keep her family safe from the capitol's machinations she would be depriving another of the right to grieve their son.

She had been sitting under the willow in the cold for so long that her hands had begun to stiffen, when she stood to continue her search for the two boys she steeped on the edge of Alder's discarded gloves. She bent and picked them up, one felt heavier than it should have, and she emptied its contents into her palm. It was Alder's token, a lacquered pinecone about an inch long. They were given for good luck on wedding days to the members of her district. His parents had saved for a long time, the sharp points had a metallic glint in the torch light and a small gold hoop had been attached so it could be strung onto a necklace. Taking off her locket she added his token to her own on the chain, when she returned home she could give it to his parents. Stuffing his gloves in her pack she walked out from under the willow into the stream bed. The moon had risen full and bright in the sky, she stowed the useless torch in her pack as well. The slow trek up the stream bed was easy going, the water had washed the bottom into a hard, smooth path. There was little to disturb her footing. As she rounded a sharp bend she was meet with the marshy swamp Alder had described, in its centre was a small island. Staying hidden in the surrounding brush she tried to get closer. The sedge grass masked the muddy depths, but she could see the sheen of moisture underneath. As she rounded the grass lake she finally found the ingress to the island in its centre. A small thin strip of land raised out of the muddy marsh. These two had found the perfectly defendable base camp. The mud would slow any attacker down, and the only easy access was easily watched from a perch atop that central rock. One person could watch their whole base camp, the scrub on the island hiding just how many people were present. When she joined the pack she might suggest this for a location change, once the current inhabitants were removed. She stayed and watched for a while hoping to spot a weakness, but other than having no lookout she could see there was none. She wasn't strong enough alone to take on this opportunity.

Remembering her water bottles she removed her gloves and dug a small depression in the mushy edge of the lake, using the leave litter to clean her hands she replaced her gloves. When she returned it had filled with clear water, she knew that she should probably boil it first but as all her equipment was plastic for now she drank what was left of her clean water and filled the bottles from both her and Alder's packs. As she moved back into the tree line she heard a sound. The evil boy had a tribute by her hair and was dragging her along the land bridge to the island, in the moonlight Johanna didn't know which one it was, but she couldn't help feeling sorry for the girl. Piaskal stood up from amid the brush on the island, taking the terrified girl from the other boy. She watched as he ducked down and returned with some rope, his voice rang out over the silent marsh  
"Let's play a little game shall we?" Johanna realised why the all-male pack's never got much airtime, at least not in the districts. These two didn't just plan to kill the girl, they were going to torture her first. Johanna walked quickly back into the forest aiming for the dry stream bed yet again. As she rounded the final corner leaving the lake behind her she heard the first blood-curdling scream. She started to run along the river bed, but she couldn't escape the girl's cries. The further she retreated from the lake the less coherent they became, the downside of having no wildlife was that she had no extra sounds to overwhelm the noises the girl was making. Johanna was sure the whole arena could hear the high pitched screaming of the girl. Finally she reached the willow, stopping to catch her breath. She checked her bearings, knowing where she was in relation to her original pine tree, and the cornucopia. Finally getting her bearings se headed off for her tree. The trek there was slower going than she imagined, the trees making the ground uneven and shielding the moonlight from reaching the ground. Occasionally the silence of the forest would be pierced by another high pitched wail. Every time this happened she would pause and wait for the cannon that would signal her death but it never seemed to come. She had been walking for a while when she suddenly realised how tired she was. Maybe she should have bedded down for the night and was considering the idea when another of the girl's high pitched screeches hit her again. This one was different it was cut short, and followed by a cannon. If she had died on the island the "Pair" as she had started to refer to them would be on the move. She definitely did not want to encounter them without the pack, picking up her pace she headed for her stash.

When she finally reached her stash the sky was starting to lighten, the darkness had caused her to lose her sense of direction and she had entered the cornucopia field almost directly opposite her tree. Not wanting to be out in the open she had skirted the field staying hidden in the brush. As she reached up into the tree for her cache her body seamed to give in. She had been awake and on the move for almost 14 hours now, the lack of sleep from her night before weighing on her. As she added the dried goods from Alder's pack to her own she heard the faint tinkling. A sliver parachute was making its way to her. The familiar crunch of her own footsteps on the now icy ground as she eased her way over to the tinkling box. She knew before she arrived that it wasn't food, the box was far too small it fit neatly in the palm of her hand. Carefully opening the box she saw a small foil packet and a white sheet with instructions. Leaning against the trunk of her tree she took the instructions out of the box, on the first side was a bunch of words she couldn't read, but on the other were just a few lines  
"_Pep Pills, A Juston Company product  
Take one for 12 hours of perfect awareness  
Take __**one**__ pill every 12 hours, no more than 4 should be taken in a row  
Stay awake for that hard night  
Hold back tiredness and sluggish thoughts  
Side effects include shakes, hallucinations, and death_"  
She giggled to herself, that was one way to promote your product. Feed it to a vulnerable teenager in a battle to the death. Someone out there liked her, and she was going to take full advantage, Alder had been right she needed to keep awake around the careers. They would take any opening they had to rid themselves of potential threats and weaknesses, and depending on what they thought of her she was both. Tucking the pills into the silver parachute, counting them she giggled again they had only given her 3, she tied it to the wires wrapped around her waist. She didn't need the careers finding these either, they might make the connection that she had done something to accumulate support from the crowd. She was beginning to shiver the lack of exercise letting her feel the chill of the night on her skin, she stood and got ready to make her way down to the beach. As she hefted her pack onto her back she heard it the faint whispers and crunching footsteps. Looking up she scaled her tree, she hoped that her body heat hadn't melted the frost enough for these two to notice.  
"He must have come this way, he was yammering about the girl the whole time I was waiting for you to arrive. She darted off this way, he thought she was just going to scale a tree and hide."  
"Yeah and if he found her I bet that stupid fire in the willow was them. They are from 7 they wouldn't know anything about how synthetic fibres burn like you. Hell there aren't that many synthetic things where I'm from and trees give way more useful stuff."  
As they neared she could the familiar metallic click that followed Piaskal throughout training. They were stalking her and Alder. She froze to the tree trunk the slightest move and she would be dead, she hadn't made it far up the tree at all and was silently swearing to herself. She had gotten so wrapped up in her present that she wasn't focusing on the sounds around her. She was on the thick branch next to her stash, she knew that they would see her from the ground if they came anywhere the tree, and her stash. Shit she needed that cache of food, if they spotted it she would be dead if the careers turned on her. As she heard their footsteps getting closer she readied herself to run, leaning forward slightly she made sure her bag wasn't snagged.  
"Even if she's not here, there was a parachute. They are so easy to hear in this silence." His laugh chilled her to the bone. the silence played tricks on her ears, it sounded like he was talking right behind her.  
"Yeah the water was good. That marshy crap tastes horrible." They were definitely close, she thought the tree was whispering in her ears. As she clung to the branch above her she was thankful for the gloves at least she wouldn't shred her palms getting out of this tree, she should have run. The mop of red hair rounded the trunk below her and stopped. Now her senses screamed at her, you have to go when it's a surprise a few seconds head start to the careers they'll kill them when you get close. Tightening her grip she swung through the gap in front of her landing a few feet from the boy, her legs already pumping she started a dash for the clearing. Her surprise leap from the tree had lured them away from her stash and she could hear them crashing through the trees behind her. Across the field with the cornucopia, she headed straight for the fire on the beach, it wasn't far only a few hundred yards. Her tired body didn't have the usual stamina, but she was outpacing at least one of them the footsteps behind her had slowed. She wasn't expecting the drop onto the sand, one step both her feet were on solid ground the next she was trying to run on air. Landing face first in the sand, she hadn't even had time to raise her hands to protect her face. Above her she heard they boy yell  
"Leave her to the careers." The footsteps coming to a halt. Looking up she saw Kai standing a few feet away. His face was a mixture of mirth and worry, he must have been on guard as he was holding the machete she had seen Coral wielding earlier. There was a dark pool forming in the sand below her, it was her nose she was pretty sure she had broken it.  
"That's one way to make an entrance. Do you need a hand up." She shook her head, the motion making her eyes water, she had broken nose but at least it wasn't her wrists. Holding her hand to her face she weaved her way to the fire. Kai holding her arm the last few feet. Kicking a lump on the sand  
"Ahoy, look who made it finally. She brought party guests but they decided to leave unexpectedly, so to bring up the entertainment value she decided to perform a flying trick. There was of course no net to catch this poor bird's maiden flight. Coral I think she may have broken a wing."  
"Kai you are such an idiot. Her arms look fine. Guess it is hard to spot the cliff in the dark. Shit girl what happened to your face." Coral had finally circled around her, she could feel droplets of her own blood hitting her jacket. She must look like death. Here coral grabbed a red bag from the pile behind her, opening it she grabbed her chin.  
"This is going to hurt. Then it's going to help. Understand?" Johanna nodded her head. Coral towered over her the girl's chest was at the same height as he face. She could hear Gallus and Gleam laughing in the background  
"Bet she screams. Lanistae had to pack my nose once, hurts like a bitch." Johanna steeled her nerves, if those two thought it hurt she was going to hate it. Coral had two small cotton bullets in her hands. She stared at the red haired girl.  
"Kai hold her head, it needs to stay still. She's going to scream and she's going to try to move."  
"I won't." Kai grasped her head, she repressed the urged to shudder. This was the exact way that the girl the bloodbath had her neck snapped.  
"You'll try not to, but the bones broken, and those bullets are going to move things around, grate on the inflamed soft tissue, and then once she has them in there she's going to pinch your nose." Kai sounded clinical there was no sympathy in his voice but there wasn't any malice either.  
"Ready?" Coral looked straight into her eyes as she asked. Johanna nodded her head. Don't scream, she steadied herself. Kai increased the pressure on her skull, one arm under her jaw the other around her forehead. Coral lined the two shots under her nose, the pointed tips inside her weeping nostrils. Using the heel of her palm she quickly slammed them upwards, blinding fire tore a blazing path through her nerves. She felt like two hot coals had been rammed into her face. Before the pain had subsided Coral grabbed each side of her nose and pinched, she swore she could hear a cracking sound in her skull. Kai released the pressure on her head. She fell to her knees, water streaming out of her eyes and all she could taste was blood and snot. Standing the careers began to clap.  
"You were right you didn't scream." Coral was beaming and so was Shimmer, she had given the girls a good name at least. Kai on the other hand was sitting back in the sand struggling to breathe.  
"When we take those out, someone has to hold her legs." Gleam started laughing and the rest soon followed.  
"I'll do it. She can't have kicked you that hard." Gleam threw her a water bottle while offering his services to remove the now pleasant feeling cotton bullets from her face. Taking a swig of the bottle she rinsed her mouth spitting the detritus in the sand, she took a slow drink of the water. Shimmer had a bowl from the pile and was beckoning her over.  
"Its sea water but the salt will help everything clean out. I'm ganna wash the blood off your face." The blond girl's hair held no trace of the blood bath, they had obviously taken the liberty of bathing in the ocean. Gently Shimmer washed the drying blood off her face and neck, she could have almost slept with the numbing on her nose and the camaraderie of the group. When her face was clean Coral started to question her, the rest just listened to her story.

She told them how Alder had found her, and how they had found the willow. She mentioned their idiocy at burning the bag, getting a few sympathetic laughs. Then the run to the tree in case someone came to investigate. Then she changed her story a little. She had climbed out of the tree to pee, and was gone only a few moments when the cannon went off. Alder had made her take a pack with her just in case they got separated. She had turned to run back to the tree, but the hover craft was already there, so she waited hidden in a bush. She had seen the two boys from training, they always hung out together climbing down from the tree. She was so scared. She switched back to the truth about how she followed them back to their camp, and they layout of their marshy island. She finished her story with the walk through the forest back to the beach, and her final dash through the trees when she had heard them coming behind her. Avoiding her pit stop at her cache to restock. Gallus looked at her sceptically from across the fire pit, behind him the sky line was starting to lighten.  
"Why did you follow them?" Her mind began to spin she hadn't thought of a reason why the scared little girl would follow two very dangerous and very murderous boys.  
"They had water, and I hadn't seen any in the river bed next to the willow, they like to grow near water. I thought maybe they had a source for the stuff." Gallus nodded she had obviously given him an answer that made sense. There were more questions about what she had seen at was now being referred to as the boys camp. She answered as best she could but her nose was staring to itch, the growing need to sneeze was becoming distracting. Finally Coral noticed her discomfort  
"The bullets are ready to come out. Kai you want to hold her head again. Gleam you've got her legs. Shim, Gallus you want to take an arm each. You survived the insertion but removal hurts even more. At least this way you can't punch me."  
"More? What do you mean more?"  
"I can't do it quick like when they went in. I have to do it one nostril at a time. If you need to sneeze don't hold back, it helps them come out. It hurts so much partly because the pain killer has worn off, and the blood makes it stick to the inside of your nose. Mucus membranes are pretty sensitive." She again repressed the urge to shudder, this time multiplied by the fact that every one of the careers was holding her in some way. Before Gallus grabbed her arm she touched her face, the bullets stuck out a little from her nostrils, barely reaching her lips but enough for them to be pulled without the use of tweezers.  
"Can I pull it?" She asked.  
"You don't want to." Kai said behind her she could feel his voice rumbling through her body. Nodding her head she gave her arm to Gallus and waited for the white hot pain to start. Again Kai locked her head into place, this time she felt completely trapped. Gleam wrapped his legs around hers and was hugging her thighs with his arms, she could feel the heat of his breath through the pants she was wearing. Shimmer and Gallus had adopted mirroring poses, holding her wrists in their armpits and facing her to hold the rest of her arms just above the elbow. When Coral reached for the first bullets they increased the tension on her shoulders by leaning back and digging their heels into the sand. Coral pulled the first bullet out, there was no urge to sneeze as the dried blood made sure every hair in her nose was yanked out with the sodden cotton. Her eyes began streaming and she was sure she could feel blood on her upper lip again. Coral inspected the red ball before throwing it into the fire. The pain had begun to subside, slowly becoming a dull ache when Coral grabbed the other bullets. There was no waiting to see if she was ready, Johanna guessed that from training they knew it was faster to get it over and done with. The anticipation making the pain so much worse the second time as Coral pulled the bullet free. The careers let go of her limbs, as Coral threw the second bloody lump into the flames.  
"You were right, I wouldn't have been able to pull them all the way out."  
"You did fine, you didn't scream, you didn't kick Kai in the shells again. Really you're quite a brave little thing. The kids watching at home are going to think that having your nose broke is painless" Coral laughed.  
"Shells?"  
"Balls? His testicles?" Gleam laughed from his seat by the fire.  
"Gallus here calls them stones. I guess we all have our own way of describing them."  
"Oh nuts, right I get you. Is that where I got you the first time? I'm sorry Kai I didn't mean to hurt you" she was secretly proud that her instinct when hurt had been to fight back. She wondered if they would play it back on her blooper reel at the final ceremony, the tiny girl from 7 trying to kick the big boys from 4's nuts off. Inside she was laughing.  
"Hey she just grazed them ok. Barely tapped them, how I dunno she must be flexible." It was praise she wasn't used to from her peers and it warmed her in a strange way, she was finding it hard to blindly hate these people after only a few hours with them. It could take days for the rest of the tributes to be hunted out. She sipped some water and thought soberly to herself it could be weeks. She needed to find a way to make these games as short as possible, before her feelings got in the way. Remembering the grading morning where Coral had offered to kill her in her sleep. She needed to lock the human part of her away somewhere deep, after the games she could mourn the deaths of her new friends. She needed to become a career.


	12. Chapter 12

There was an acrid smell in her nostrils, Cami must have burnt something again. Her pillow felt gritty, and she was too warm. She opened her eyes and stared at the great big ocean, waves crashing into the sand. For a second she had been confused, then she remembered Cami couldn't have been burning things. She was in the arena. Her side ached under the cuts from the trap wire, but her nose felt like it had healed. She couldn't see any of the careers, maybe they had abandoned her on the beach while she slept. She hadn't meant to fall asleep, but she hadn't been able to slip away to take one of the pills either. Eventually her body had over ruled her and she had curled into a snoozing ball in the sand. She remembered Gleam saying he would make sure she was awake in a few hours, she could hear shouting over by the baggage. After they had fixed her nose, Coral had explained what they had found in the bags. Kai said they had piled them together on the beach so they would be easy to protect from raiders. The group had joked about how they didn't need her now because of all the fresh food, she had cringed inside hoping this meant they would turn on her in the following night. Eventually she had drifted into an unwilling sleep. Gleam and Shimmer had mentioned they'd wake her later, and she remembered thinking that if they were going to wake her they weren't going to kill her. Her body ached from sleeping in the sand, she stretched her back cracking. The acrid, burning smell was getting stronger as she scanned the beach. The pack was standing around a bubbling mass on the beach, they moved while she slept, maybe they were thinking of abandoning her she thought. Shrugging her shoulders she made her way towards the group, if they wanted to abandon her they may as well tell her before they left.  
"Where are the bags" she yawned. They pack turned in unison.  
"There is no food, this lumpy mass is the bags." Coral's voice was calm, but not in the soothing way her mother talked, there was a scared child under the calm exterior.  
"That stuff melted everything"  
"What do you mean everything? Did any of the packs survive?" she was incredulous, the pack wouldn't have stored everything in that pile right, they would have thought ahead.  
"A few packs made it. You're the ones we were using as pillows last night." Kai had the same stunted speech, the entire group was in shock. Johanna was assessing the situation, she figured the game-makers had melted the pack's gear because it was conveniently placed in a nice pile that's why some of the bags had made through undamaged. She walked towards the gloopy mass, it smelt like the smoke released from Alder's burnt pack. She saw something glittering in the bubbling mass and began to reach for it when Gleam grabbed her hand.  
"Don't its poisonous." His speech was also that weird stunted form, flat, with no inflection it sounded like her fellow tributes had been replaced by Avox simulations. Then it dawned on her, one of them had been burnt, or melted, by this stuff. They were in shock because on the second day in the arena one of them was already dead.  
"Who got hurt?" In response the entire pack looked at her, her heart rose for a second when she couldn't see Gallus' face, but was quickly replaced by confusion when he walked around from the other side of the smoking heap. The group was staring at Coral, their leader. In response to her question Coral lifted her left-hand, skin dripped from the bones of her fingers, like a badly formed jelly. The melted flesh was blackened and charred, her smallest finger was completely gone. Johanna saw the melted mess and immediately bent forward and vomited. There was no way for her to hold in the precious water, Coral's hand was the worst injury she had ever seen. Even when the work crews put a limb into the sawmill it didn't look this bad, the flesh was ripped and torn into bloody chunks, but the more she looked at Coral the more she thought of the melting desserts served in the capitol. The flesh and bone had liquefied, there was no way to rescue this injury.  
"Does it hurt?"  
"It did, but the seawater seems to have stopped it creeping up my arm. Now there is just nothing there." The flat tone was really beginning to unnerve Johanna. She leaned forward her stomach trying to bring up every last bit of her last meal. Dry heaving into the sand, there was nothing left. Looking at the faces around her she saw that they held little scorn, they had been horrified by this little experiment. Johanna looked towards the sky as sheets of rain began to fall, it was like the sky had dumped a bucket on the arena. Thinking of the water she had just discarded into the sand she turned her face to the sky, and opened her mouth. As soon as the salty water hit her tongue she realised what the arena was doing. This particular trap had been directed at the pack, but would be effecting the other tributes as well. None of them would be located near the sea, this deluge was to preserve their lives. As the water hit the black, bubbling mass is hissed and spluttered driving the pack towards their campfire. The others were content to stand in the rain and wait, with the noise of the storm they were unable to talk and decide their next plan of action anyway. Johanna was amazed at how the sky stayed a beautiful summer blue, rich and jewel like throughout the down pour, there was no place for the rain to originate and yet it fell in an even stream. As quickly as the downpour started it stopped completely. A cannon sounded, one of the tributes hadn't stayed in the rain. The pack began to sit around the fire, its pit now wet ashes. The deluge had extinguished it completely. Johanna watched the group, Coral was hunched in the sand next to her, still unable to fully comprehend the damage to her limb. Gallus and Gleam went through the remaining packs, there was no food. A blanket was discovered as well as a tarp, trapping materials including a net, in Shimmer's pack was a set of night vision glasses, Gleams pack held a matching pair. Gallus also had blankets, and a fire making kit. Coral's pack held the first aid kit they had used on her last night, the food she gathered from the conversation had been stored in the pile of packs to make it easy to guard. Buried at the bottom scavengers would have to dig for a while giving the pack ample time to find and kill them, she got the distinct impression they didn't care about the furry kind. The individual weapons that each tribute preferred had been preserved but only because they were on the person. Johanna couldn't determine any logic to the melting packs. Collectively they decided that carrying their gear in bags was too dangerous, none of them wanted what had happened to Coral's hand repeated on their backs. Piling the good into the blankets and tarps the boys decided they would carry them at all times. Resources were suddenly very scarce, they could not afford a cache anymore. Without the security of additional supplies, the pack sat down and began to discuss the next base for them to move to. Turning to Johanna, Coral took charge again. The leader asked Johanna to repeat key parts of her story to the pack, specifically what the marshy island looked like. She also asked about how good the willow would be for a night. After she had recalled as much as she could about both sites, she sat back and waited. The pack would make a decision, and she would go along with it.

It was mid-afternoon by the time a consensus was reached. Shimmer and Gallus had wanted to attack the pair and take the easily defensible island straight away. Kai, Gleam and Coral wanted to spend a night at the willow, that way they could scout the island themselves with the night vision glasses themselves first. Not once had they asked her opinion, but she agreed with the willow idea. She couldn't be sure how accurate her assessment had been of the surrounding landscape, and there may have been a better way to access the pair's base camp. She kept silent, the pack had returned to its normal self. Once an agreement to their plans was made she heard the tinkling bell of a package arriving. She cocked her head, it sounded like the arrival of several packages actually. Four parachutes descended through the air, landing next to the empty fire pit. The containers were no larger than a dinner plate. Coral, Shimmer, Gallus and Kai all took a container and opening them as they did so. She knew the smell from Coral's package the second the girl returned to her seat next to her, it was her home bread. The rich nutty smell reminding her stomach of how empty it was, Coral looked at it quizzically.  
"It's my districts bread. It has lots of nuts and grains in it. We should probably save it for later seeing as we are low on food." Johanna spoke for the first time. Coral nodded her head, and passed the container around, the other tributes had never seen her home bread before.  
"So what's in it?" Kai asked.  
"Whole grain, basic flour, seeds and nuts from the trees we grow" she sniffed the container as it reached her "This is an expensive version, it has some fruit in it, and fat." It smelt richer than any bread her mother could afford to buy or bake. The other three containers contained the bread of the other districts. Kai and Coral's was a seaweed green with flakes of thick salt on top. Gallus' bread had a smell that she didn't recognise, it wasn't unpleasant but it was strong, with cheesy layers folded into the mix.  
"That's garlic, and there will be tomato paste in the middle." He had explained, the group was fascinated by each other's different baked goods. By far the most appealing was Shimmer and Gleam's offering. Sweet and buttery in smell, the six small buns in their container were far smaller than any of the others, folded into delicate crescent shapes. Shimmer suggested they eat them now, the butter made them become inedible quickly. Each taking a crescent out of the tin, the group waited until Gallus held the last on in his hand before taking a bite. The buttery bread melted on her tongue, flaky and light. In the centre wrapped in chocolate, a taste she recognised from the hot chocolate in the capitol. In that rich melting ooze was a fruit, she didn't recognise it at first sweet and slightly sour it complemented the rich almost bitter chocolate well. Shimmer laughed, and Gleam's face broke into a beaming grin looking at each other they said in unison  
"Corruptela."  
"It's the best bakery in town, they are the only one who put chocolate and fruit in it together usually you get one or the other" Shimmer explained. Johanna continued to nibble at her bread she wanted to savour the flavour, but also trick her stomach into thinking it had more food than she was eating. She was still very much aware that there was no game on this island, and she had seen no food bearing plants. The pack devoured their own portions, except for Kai who followed her suit. When the others noticed they began to jest that he had developed a crush on the skinny interloper.  
"She's been hungry before. We have this bread, what we can catch and what our sponsors will give us. I'm going to do everything she does when it comes to food." Was his only response, the others began to stare at her while she ate. It made her uncomfortable, people didn't watch others eat in 7 it was rude. You also didn't eat in front of people who had nothing, their stares eventually made her so uncomfortable she wrapped the last third of her bread in the parachute from the box next to her. Kai followed suit. It felt so strange to have the boy follow her lead. The others just laughed it off, food wasn't hard to come by that's why they had her. She smiled at the group but inside she was laughing in a few hours they would be hungry, but in a few days when they had eaten all the bread they would begin to starve. She thought that the kids had never had an empty day in their lives. Missing a single meal was a possibility but an entire days. She remembered the headaches, and muscle cramps that came after days with no food, the foggy mind. Outside she was wary but inside she was waiting, she wasn't going to tell them how to ration the food they had. Johanna was pretty sure they wouldn't listen to her anyway, but she was waiting for the day the first hunger pains began to settle in. Kai was the only one who seemed to have any sense when it came to food, it was sweet the way he understood, she thought that if he wasn't trying to kill everyone she could have been good friends with him. Now his admiration worried her, if he followed her every action with food he wouldn't be weak like the others when the time came. She was enjoying the pre-victory, knowing it wouldn't take long for the lack of water to kick in. Feeling smug she barely registered that Coral was speaking.  
"He's right you know. We don't know what it's like to go hungry often. We should follow her lead, at least where food comes in. And we should start to make tracks to the willow, it'll be getting cold and dark soon and we want time to set up." Coral stood and reached for a bag with her damaged hand, there was a frustrated scream when her fingers refused to grasp the strap. Leaving it behind she headed up the beach, Johanna watched in horror at the predatory looks exchanged between the other members of the pack. She noticed that the pack should have been left behind, her goods were wrapped in the blanket, and Coral was in far more pain than she was letting on. Inside she felt some relief, she wasn't the weakest member any more. The pack had obviously designated each other a time frame, no matter how well they cared for each other in the beginning only one was going to make it out alive.

The trek to the willow was slow going Coral often had to pause to allow the pain to subside, the red headed girl was doing her best to hide the agony her melted limb was giving her. Johanna could see the calculating stares and the narrowed eyes every time their self-appointed leader leaned against a tree, or waved for a stop. For her part Coral was doing her best to hide the torture she was going through, when she stopped it was to ask Johanna for directions, or to make sure they had not veered off course. When she wanted to rest it was so Johanna could check for food items. It was at one of these pit stops that she brought up the fact that there was no animal life, they were sitting on a log under a broad leafed tree, the entire group coming up with nothing in their most recent search for any kind of food.  
"Did you guys notice that there is no wildlife in the area? Not even bugs. During the day it's pretty warm, and I haven't been bitten by anything." She was trying to sound as casual as possible, but her heart was racing, if they realised on their own that she was useless then she wouldn't get a chance to run. Maybe they wouldn't kill her if she brought it up.  
"No I hadn't. We don't really spend a lot of time outside in our training. Bugs aren't something I would notice." Gallus' tone suggested that this conversation was beneath him. Why would he notice if there were bugs or not.  
"Ok. Well take this log for example." Johanna stood and kicked it to emphasize her point, it crumbled and gave way where her boot connected. "Usually these are riddled with bugs. They eat the wood and leave tracks everywhere. Other animals come and eat them, like birds and spiders. But here there are no webs. There aren't even the silvery trails left by snails." The group looked at the log she had been sitting on, there were a few worried looks.  
"That kind of goes with what we already know." Kai hadn't move from the tree he was using for a back rest. His long legs stretched out in front of him.  
"What do you mean?" Johanna was curious, if they already knew she couldn't get them food, why hadn't he offed her when she had crash landed on the beach. Or wasted their resources on fixing her broken nose.  
"There was nothing in the ocean either. Coral and I dived the first night. It's not that there's nothing out there, there is something and its big. There no shell-fish, crustaceans nothing that lives close to shore. I think this arena has been wiped clean."  
"There's nothing at night either. I heard the boy's conversation from far further away than I should have." Johanna was quiet now, look scared, and stay scared, they can't know you mean to run. You're placid and weak.  
"We know. But there I certain barks off trees that you can eat right?"  
"Yeah, but if we live just on that we will die eventually" she laughed the irony of her statement wasn't lost on the group either. Eventually death would come sooner rather than later for all of them. It was then the group sat in somnolent silence, the laughter seemed out of place I the funerary forest, the tees standing silent guard over the arena. Gallus was the one to break the silence  
"Let's get going I want to do some recon now that we are setting up a base camp. At least check the area, I doubt if the runt has any idea about ways to stay safe." The runt, that was a new nickname, she wasn't sure what it meant. Coral was sweating profusely as she struggled to stand, Johanna went to help her from the log, and for the first time on their trek she wasn't waved away. When her skin touched the other girls it was like gripping a clammy stone, her skin was damp with sticky sweat. As Johanna got her to her feet the girl leaned on her shoulders, the smell of fear sweat acrid in her nose. Coral was in danger, as they continued their trek Johanna could feel the tremor racking the girl's body, the idle wobble in her legs as she tried not to stumble over the slightest obstacle. They were leading the way and she could feel the cold stares on her back. Softness equalled weakness, Coral should have been left behind or put out of her misery. They eventually trudged across the dry stream bed, scaling on the bank on the other side Coral fell off Johanna's shoulders landing on her damaged hand. The scream was pain and frustration, Johanna stooped again to help her rise, when she saw her face she knew something was desperately wrong  
"Kai. That first aid kit, was there anything for shock?"  
"Why?" Kai understood as he leaned in closer, their voices barely above a whisper. He still wanted to defend his district mate for as long as possible. She couldn't understand the shifting loyalties of these careers.  
"Her lips are blue, she's been mumbling for a while now, shaking, and stumbling. They are all symptoms of serious shock. We need to get her warm, some water, and something for the pain. Kai she needs sleep." She had surprised herself about how worried she was for the other girl. Dying in her sleep, the same thing Coral had promised her, it was the best she could do for her now. It seemed strange that amidst this field of killers the tributes seemed to stay together, each huddled with their own district member protecting him or her for as long as possible. She would have thought a final show down with someone you knew, that would have been hard, a faceless stranger was infinitely better in her book.

It wasn't until she and Kai had finished dragging Coral under the tree that she realised that she had put faces to her strangers in the darkness. Her nightmares, terrors awaiting to rip out her life, her enemies were no longer a morph-less group of people hiding in the shadows. By teaming up with the careers she had effectively guaranteed that she would be facing someone she knew in the final hours, she looked across Coral shivering form at the group setting up a camp. Gallus and Glimmer had dumped the blankets with their gear next to Shimmer, letting her unpack, and dole out another of the districts bread. The boys had taken the only surviving night glasses and were trying them on in the shade of the willow. Kai was rummaging through the left over packing, looking for the first aid kit. Shimmer handed her a loaf of Gallus's bread  
"There's one here for her to but, well, can she eat?"  
"Save it. Right now, I don't know, she's barely awake and if we feed her she might choke." The last loaf was placed back in its silver tin. Johanna was about to suggest hanging it on a high branch to keep it away from some of the more industrious woodland critters.  
"Shimmer, do you know anything about first aid?"  
"Johanna. We aren't in the business of keeping people alive. Tonight the boys are going to scout, and then tomorrow we go hunting. Do you have to stomach for that?"  
"For what?" Naive that's the rule. Meek, weak, naïve Johanna.  
"Only one person gets out alive, and we are trying our hardest to make sure it's one of us. You're going to need to do your fair share of the work at some point. Finding some decent food is a good start." It wasn't a subtle threat, Shimmer's meaning flew dead true. Fit it or be removed. Share in the jobs, seeing as the one you were recruited for doesn't exist, or die. You are still in the way to one of us winning this game. Glimmer had eaten half his bread, while Gallus had devoured his. Johanna sat down next to the prone girl, she was still moving in a feverish sleep, but Coral didn't seem like she was waking up anytime soon. Taking out the buttery bread from their morning meal she ate slowly, finding it easier without the prying eyes of the pack. Sniffing the loaf from district 2 she smelt lots of fat in its make-up. This bread wouldn't last either, she bit into the soft doughy layers. Thick rich tomato sauce ran across her tongue, sharp and sweet it instantly made her feel like she was eating a full meal. The garlic was strong but not unpleasant, and when her next mouthful contained the succulent crunch of perfectly cooked onion she felt like she was in heaven. Kai returned from the digging through their belongings, his face was a mask of anxiety and worry.  
"There's nothing there that will help. We'll just have to see how she goes, maybe she'll wake up." Neither of them wanted to admit it but they knew, whatever had melted the bags had killed Coral, if they were better players they would put her out of her misery, but Johana wanted to be a better human. It seemed unfair in some way to kill the defenceless girl, sliding her back against the tree she watched the pack begin to discuss the situation. Her opinion about Coral or the Pair wasn't needed now. The pack avoided talking about their red-haired leader as much as possible, first talking about their plan for an evening scout of the island. A shovel was produced from the pile of their belongings. Glimmer had taken on the role of their new leader but he was fighting the others hard for it.  
"Look we need to dig a latrine, I'd rather not die in her covered in my on piss and shit" Glimmer was growling at the group  
"Fuck whatever, like we are staying if runt is right, the best position on the island has been taken up by the kid with the wire." Gallus was snarling back  
"Gallus you couldn't lead ducks to water. Seriously if it's as easily defensible as Runt says it they only need one long distance weapon and a little skill to take us out one by one. If you want to try that plan, then we'll hunt elsewhere first. Save them for last. Fuck you know she's not bad at this whole location thing." Shimmer sounded surprised, the girl's hair was pulled back into a pony tail and it swayed as she threw her whole body into talking to Gallus. Her back arched towards him, she used her height advantage to tower over him, looking like a parent scolding a child. She punctuated every second word with a pointed finger sometimes in her direction, sometimes at Gallus, a few times at the surrounding area.  
"What the hell are you on about?" Gallus' snarl was even more venomous, taking Glimmer's side had put Shimmer against him. Johanna's had started to listen more at the mention of her new nickname, Runt. It wasn't that bad really, they could have called her Fodder.  
"If we pick a decent tree, we could see anything coming a mile away. Oi, Runt where's this tree you two idiots ran to after burning that bag?" Glimmer didn't sound malicious, and in hindsight she was glad she hadn't been carrying two bags when they had started to melt.  
"That pine across the river, the taller one. It has a platform in it, you can see for miles." She pointed at Alder's tree. That's what she had decided to call it, he had earned a place, and she needed to remind herself that if she got out of here she needed to make it up to his family. She needed to get out of her and make it up to her family.  
"If you get such a great view, how the hell did you two miss that idiot pair sneaking up on you?"  
"I… I didn't think that anyone would be hunting that early in the game. I honestly thought that they would search the smoke, find nothing and then leave." For the first time a lie didn't come easy to her tongue, the deviousness of it must be apparent on her face to the others. She waited for the hit, they all had weapons, and it would be fast she told herself.  
"She's a fucking idiot. Take me to the tree. We'll see how you built this platform." Gallus was growling at her, that mask of hate, if she went with him he'd kill her.  
"Gallus, Shimmer and I will take her. You and Kai dig the trench and scout the area. We will sort Coral when we get back." There was immediate shouting as the group began to yell over the top of each other.  
"WE WILL TAKE HER!" Glimmer roared over the top of the incessant noise, if there had been birds Johanna imagined they wouldn't have took flight from the pent up rage and disgust in that roar.  
"If Shim and I go together one of us can stay behind and come back and tell you how well it's set up. As you so carefully pointed out Gallus she isn't experienced, and we are." Gallus said nothing, the glare he gave the district 1 pair could have melted the snow in winter. Shimmer signalled Johanna to follow her with a wave of her arm, brushing aside the branches of the willow she caught the sunlight in her bright hair creating a halo of bright blonde and white light, it must have been mid-afternoon, she knew she was fatigued, she was struggling to keep track of the hours.

The short trip to the trip was quite, both Shimmer and Glimmer talked in hushed whispers as they followed her. She heard snippets of their conversation  
"He's a threat" "She has to go" "Burden" "She's proven herself" "Quiet, barely making a sound"  
She guessed they were talking about Gallus, Coral, and her. Sharing secrets, whoever stayed behind at the tree, she decided she was staying to. She rehearsed the way she would convince them to let her stay. When the y finally reached the pine she finally saw a weakness in the pack, their slow lumbering climb was unsteady, Shimmer had a fear of heights, and Glimmer didn't trust his feet, checking his footing every time. She decided to climb and wait for them at the platform. As she neared the wooden platform her hands started to come away red from the bark, the first time she realised it was Alder's blood she started to heave. Bile built up in the back of her throat, gaging on the acidic taste she finally made it to the platform. Gelatinous masses of Alder's blood dotted the platform where it had pooled on leaves and in the fissures of the bark, in the aged knots of one of the branches she could see the black pool, leaning off the platform she threw-up the bread she had eaten before, the tomato and garlic that had been so enticing, suddenly burning and tasting of bile. She could hear the pair below her laughing.  
"You alright Runt?" Shimmer's voice glittered through the trees. The previously sweet taste from the onions and garlic has solidified on her taste-buds as a thick sharp flavour. Wiping her mouth she made sure the crying girl was in her voice as she yelled back  
"Yeah, there's just so much blood here." Ascending higher to her perch above the platform she waited. The silence of the forest around her told her exactly how far up the tree the other two were. They puffed and groaned until finally their heads crested the platform.  
"You're quick up here." Shimmer praised.  
"Yeah well, district 7 home of the trees, we climb them all the time." She shrugged as she talked. It had taken her nearly 15 minutes to reach her perch, Shimmer had taken nearly an hour, and with his cautious steps technique it took Glimmer longer. She stared out over the view, she could see Kai and Gallus digging a small trench not far from the willow. When Glimmer joined the girls she was still watching the boys in the glade below.  
"Fuck you Kai. She's dying under that tree. Be a man and go in there an end it!" Gallus had dropped his shovel and was knocking Kai in the chest. The taller boy rocked back on his heels, then winding his arm back connected with Gallus' face. The stockier boy dropped to the ground, screaming in rage.  
"We will decide as a team. In case you haven't noticed you're not exactly leadership material." The argument was clear in the silent air, and short lived.  
"You can hear everything up here. Good View to. Can you see the Pairs camp from here?" Glimmer sounded impressed. Apparently she wasn't so bad at this whole location thing.  
"Um follow the dry stream, its sheltered behind those trees, but you see where it looks like the leaves just stop over there, I'm pretty sure that's the swamp." The other two nodded  
"Did you know that's where they were?" Shimmer was starting to give her the same guarded look Gallus so often tossed her way.  
"No we just rang figuring the smoke would draw anyone in. Pines are easier to climb than other trees, you can almost run around the trunk if the branches are spaced right. And we figured we would be spending the night up here. They make nicer platforms" she knew she was rambling but it was nice to have a topic she felt comfortable in. The golden pair were scanning the trees below, there was a golden flicker on the far side of the river bed not far from the willow, she raised her arm and pointed.  
"Someone's lit a fire" Shimmer was the first to find the glow, Glimmer's eyes brightened. The look wasn't quite feral, but in that moment she knew what it took to be a career, these kids weren't just some roup who volunteered to be tributes. They liked to kill. Granted she was sure they weren't as perverse as the pair.  
"Shim, stay here, the boys and I are going hunting" Glimmer slid off the platform and into the darkening afternoon.


End file.
